My oldest daughter gave me a great idea today. Have a countdown to when I (and several friends) go skydiving for my 50th birthday.
So...in that spirit....only 38 days until we go!
I really desire in my life to grow in God.
Here are some things I am learning about spiritual growth:
First - Spiritual growth is not automatic. Just because you’ve been a Christian for a long time, doesn’t mean that you have grown spiritually. The fact that you’ve been saved by grace doesn’t mean that you’ve grown in grace. Hebrews 5:12-13 says:
You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right.
There is no correlation between the amount of time that you have been a Christian and the amount that you have grown. Some people have been believers for years and have hardly grown. Some just began to follow Jesus and they’ve grown tremendously already. Spiritual growth is not automatic.
Second – Spiritual growth is ongoing. Unlike physical growth, it never ends. There isn’t a person here who couldn’t grow more spiritually. 2 Peter 3:18 says, "Continue to grow in grace." It never ends. Every day when you wake up, you can either grow more spiritually or you can take a step backwards. Somebody has said that the Christian life is like riding a bicycle. Unless you keep moving, you fall off. We will never attain all that there is in Christ in this life.
People try a lot of shortcuts. Some people look for an emotional experience – "If I just get this `certain experience', then all my problems will be solved and I will be a mature Christian." Other people say, "If I could just go to this seminar.... If I could just read this book... If I could just listen to this tape..." Other people say, "If I could just keep a certain set of rules, then I could be all God wants me to be."
But the Bible says, no. It's a continual process. You have to learn to be mature. But there are some skills that you can learn that will help you grow.
Third - Spiritual growth isn’t about how many. It’s not about how many meetings you attend at church or how many verses you memorize in the Bible. It’s not about how many minutes you spend in devotions every morning or how many Christian books you read last year. Those aren’t bad things, but they’re not the measurement of spiritual growth. Just doing things doesn’t mean you’re growing. It’s not a matter of how many.
Let me tell you what spiritual growth is. It’s about how much. It’s about the quality of life. It’s about how much closer I am to God than I was at this time last year. It’s how much my character is being changed by God’s power. It’s how much more I love my wife and kids because of God’s grace. Jesus said, "My purpose is to give life in all its fullness" (John 10:10). He didn’t say he came to give us more things to do. He came to give us a new quality of living.
God didn't just give us grace to get us started. God gave us his grace tokeep us going.
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All of those things can lead to spiritual growth...I like to measure against the given yardstick. I want to be more like Jesus each and every day. Very rarely did Jesus speak harshly or act rudely (well, there was the money lenders in the temple thing but that was truly righteous), He always acted in love even though some didn't see it that way (Jewish leaders and Judas for that matter), He always tried to help others both physically and spiritually through healing and guidance/teaching. That's the yard stick for me in growing spiritually.
I'm horrible at memorizing scripture...I can get the gist of it by paraphrasing but to spout out the address and a perfect rendition is beyond me. I read a lot of books and some help me to be a better husband or father or Christian brother but others I read for enjoyment or secular knowledge (oh, gasp, he reads secular books!). I try to spend time in prayer and reading the Word every day but some days I miss...and God forgives me when I ask.
A couple of years ago (okay more like a decade but who's counting?) a common phrase that we heard was "WWJD...What would Jesus do?" That's the yard stick for our lives and our spiritual growth. When we can all be more like Jesus and find no difference between what Jesus would do and what we did...that's when we can consider ourselves to be "mature" Christians. Until then, we all need to continue to grow spiritually...and relationally. Being spiritual in a vacuum is not what God intended...being spiritual in relationship with others was! So, to use the short version of our church motto:
LOVE GOD, Love People!
Jon
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