Are You Growing?

     Around twenty two years ago, I started experiencing spiritual growth for the first time. Though I got saved when I was nine years old, I never really grew much. The only reason I started experiencing growth in my life when I did was because some changes had occurred. I had to commit to change my routine. I started attending two, great, weekly events our church sponsored for women. One was a time of fellowship, a workshop of some sort (like how to make a Thanksgiving meal), and a lesson taught by rotating teachers. The other was a Bible Study where you had to commit to 45 minutes of daily homework. These two events started changing me. When truth starts to get planted in the soul, Christ-like character begins to bloom. After a year, I took the course to get certified as a Precept teacher. I started teaching soon after and teaching definitely grows you to a different level. I started attending women and marriage retreats. I took a course on how to share my faith to be able to lead someone to the Lord. I took 50 hours of counseling training which our church sponsored. We attended every revival. We attended church every time we could hear our pastor preach. The more I put myself in the position to learn, the more I changed and grew. Everything I am spiritually and everything I teach as a teacher has its foundation in these years of growth for me. This period in my life lasted approximately four years. God continually grows me still; but there was something special about those foundational years of growth.
     Today, we have grown into a society where we want rewards without the sacrifice; without the hard effort. We want to lose weight but we don’t want to do what it takes to achieve it! We want to break our financial bondage but we don’t want to sacrifice the things we like or live on a budget to achieve it! We want to live a great retirement but we don’t want to plan. We want well behaved children but we don’t want to discipline. Most importantly, we want to grow in our knowledge of God and His ways but we don’t want to commit to a Bible study class or fellowship with other Christian women, or retreats, or daily time in the word. For years, I have wanted discipline in my life. I wanted it so bad!! However, no matter how much I yearned for it; it didn’t happen until I dedicated myself to action. We often have no problem quickly committing to activities for our children, or local charities, or sports teams, or social activities. Why is it so hard to commit to the things we need to grow in our faith?
Are you doing what it takes to grow spiritually? How many classes have you taken to learn and grow in God’s Word? Are you ready to start studying God’s Word? How many retreats have you attended? What kind of Biblical foundation do you have? Today you get an assignment! (Now, have a good attitude, I rarely give you work to do! Lol) I want you to get a blank piece of paper. I want you to look back over the last ten years of your life. What events or happenings occurred that helped you to grow in your faith? Put dates beside them. On your blank sheet of paper, evenly write out the last 10 years across the bottom of your paper, starting with the year 2000 on the left corner and ending with 2010 the right corner. Now write in your events in the year they occurred. On the left hand edge of your paper, evenly space out the numbers 1-10, place one towards the bottom of the page (not lower than your entries of events) and ten on the top. Now go back and put a dot above each year, by the number that describes your growth in the Lord. (Ten being the best and 1 being the worst) Connect the dots. What does your spiritual growth look like?
     Have you used your time wisely and reaped spiritual growth as a Christian? Or are you wasting the years: never changing, never growing? Are you happy with where you’re at in your walk? If not, what action are you going to dedicate yourself to in order to change? Wanting it is not enough; you have to take some action!

While we were children our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well trained who find themselves mature in your relationship with God. So, don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! 
Hebrews 12:10-12