How Do We Grow Spiritually?

 November 7, 2024

Thursday

Why are so many Christians never changed? They can give a testimony of trusting in Christ but they exhibit the characteristics of the world. Didn't God say that He would cause them to grow spiritually?

Philippians 1:6 (NASB 2020) ⁶ For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.

We can't blame our own stagnant Christian lives on God. We always have the ability to quench and grieve the Spirit. Thus, God is working to bring us to spiritual maturity but we are digging in our heels so that we won't grow.

But if you are reading this, that's probably not who you are. You want to know how God causes us to grow. Well, He does so in three ways.

God causes us to grow by giving us invitations to join Him.

Ephesians 2:10 (NASB 2020)¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

God planned the good works we should accomplish with Him before the beginning of time. He knew exactly what we needed to grow and He prepared these things so that we would grow closer to Him and mature in our faith.

God causes us to grow through commitments.

Hebrews 12:1 (NASB 2020)¹ Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us,

As we walk with God, we realize there are things that are holding us back. We both accept the things we should do and reject the things we shouldn't do to rid ourselves of those things. The question is, what is holding us back? It may be something we are spending time on that keeps us from doing what God desires us to do. It may be something that has become too important in our lives and skews our image of what God desires for us.

So, we make commitments to stop doing some things never to do them again . We make commitments to get things under control that we haven't gotten under control before. Some of them are plainly sinful. Others are just dragging us back. We make those commitments and grow spiritually.

God causes us to grow by allowing tests in our lives.

James 1:2–4 (NASB 2020) ² Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We see God allowing tests in the lives of everyone who had spiritual growth in the Bible. We see it for Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Elijah, Peter, and Paul just to name a few. We will not pass all the tests. We will grow beyond the failures if we allow God to continue to work within us as we encounter new tests.

That is, unless we quit. Judas quit. He had no spiritual growth.

If you would like to hear these ideas fleshed out in a sermon, I will be preaching on this topic on November 24. Just go to www.thalialynn.com to watch the service. God wants you to grow. I believe you want to grow too.