By: Jackie Warner
Growing is hard and it takes time and effort, allowing the strength of our Savior to dwell within us.
Our first step is personal self-assessment.
- Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test! – 2 Corinthians 13:5
- Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! – Psalm 139:23-24
Once you understand that growth starts with you and only you, then there comes… DESIRE –– the desire to know HIM — to know His word and to want His presence in your life. Desire must be there first for you to get to spiritual growth. The Scripture tells us to desire, to crave the pure spiritual milk…that by it you may grow up into salvation. In our understanding, we must rid ourselves of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy and envy and slander. Too many times we have an abundance of stuff crowding our soil, our space; the very space meant for God’s growth in our lives. Spiritual growth does not just happen. Real spiritual maturity requires us to take action in our lives. Yes, we desire the sincere spiritual milk, but we don’t need to just stay at this stage in our journey.
When we are “going through,” it is really “growing through”! Make room for God’s growth in you. It is easy and comfortable to stay with what we know. To stop when things become unfamiliar, to turn around when there is no road map. To get mad and blame everyone else because you can’t see what’s coming next.
Cultivate your soil for growth? Crops, trees, and flowers do not grow well when crowded. Our spiritual growth is hindered when we allow things to crowd out our journey. Jesus warned about the danger of interference – Mark 4:18-19 (KJV) If we desire a healthy spiritual crop, we may need to “weed out” some things in our lives. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word/And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
April 19, 2024
