Action results in spiritual development.

Your commitment to application of faith is much stronger when that commitment is based on a faith grounded in experience. Commitments based on hope often begin with similar fervor but lose momentum because of lack of a sufficient foundation.

You live life to grow in faith, but you also live to act in faith. It is the action that you bring to your life that enhances and gives meaning to God’s presence. You may talk endlessly about the importance of God in your life, but if you do nothing that demonstrates that importance, your words are empty. It is commitment to action that provides the grounds for your own spiritual development and the development of others.

Action takes many varied directions. Action may indeed be doing something which is observable that interacts directly with another or on behalf of another, but action may also lead to prayer, prayer offered in solitude with no one to observe. The act of prayer is in itself placing your faith into an active expression.

Being with another who is suffering is acting with faith, for you are acting through compassion. You are acting through a personal acknowledgment of the importance of another. That is an action based on faith. Being there to hear what another wishes to say is an action based on faith. Although it is quiet and outwardly passive, it is still an application of your faith. The most important word here is action, and it comes from your commitment to making life better for another human being.