[annalex]

The seed of faith does indeed come from God, but the paradox that you see between mature faith and free will disappears if you consider the scripture I showed you, describing the growth of the embryonic faith through the good works of free will.

[HarleyD]

The seed of faith does indeed come from God

If the seed of faith comes from God, we will have faith. Faith, by definition, is faith. There is nothing we do to cooperate.

but the paradox that you see between mature faith and free will disappears

There is no paradox. Faith has nothing to do with free will. Having great faith doesn't mean you won't do stupid things. Ask David. Having a little bit of faith doesn't mean you won't accomplish great tasks. Ask Esther.

Faith is given by God and God grows this faith as He sees fit. With free will, God uses our choices to make us (Christians) better people. For us to think that if we "freely" follow God's will that He will reward us for being "good people" by increasing our faith underscores a common misunderstanding of our depraved nature. We are dependent on Him daily for everything. Faith is given to us and is maintained in us by God as a gift; not because we do a whole lot of good things for Him.

describing the growth of the embryonic faith through the good works of free will.

Sorry, any good work that takes place through us is because of Christ our Lord. To paraphrase what Mary aptly stated, "We are the Lord's servants. May it be as He has said."

My analysis of Luke 17 of the unworthy servants is precisely correct. We are unworthy servants. There is nothing that is due us since it all comes from God. As the blessed Cyprian stated,

"that we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own." And in order to show this, he appealed to the apostle as a witness, where he said, "For what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received it?" [1 Cor. 4.7.] - St Cyprian