It is easy to listen to a sermon and feel spiritually rejuvenated afterwards, but temporal trust and faith is not spiritual growth. Most of us wish we were spiritually on fire, but can never find enough motivation to strive in Christ. Solving this issue is not easy, but with the assistance of the Holy Spirit we can achieve anything! Proverbs 13:4 declares, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” Spiritual complacency is a tool the enemy uses to prevent us from maturing and growing in Christ. Lately, Christ has challenged me to outgrow this perceived permanent state of faith.
I tell myself over and over again there is no way I’ll flourish in my faith; I’ll never amount to significant growth in my walk. Again this is a lie the enemy uses to avert my trust in Christ. To my amazement, I’m finally taking a sledge hammer to this spiritual stagnation. There are three things in my life that I’ve been improving in that are helping me achieve spiritual growth. First, my communication with others is improving; second, I’m applying more scripture into my life; and finally, trusting in God more.
The apostles were called to leave everything behind to follow Jesus, removing anything hindering them from doing so. Jesus asserted, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24-26). Lately, I have had to deny myself many temptations in order strengthen my relationship with Jesus. Instead of staying up later to indulge in television, I’ve been going to sleep earlier and reading. My classes continue to get challenging, so I’ve taken up the challenge to exercise more in order to have more brain energy. As a result of these new changes in my life, my faith in God is stronger. The temptations still exist of course, but nonetheless, I am growing and maturing in Christ.
Communication is one of the strongest hindering blocks in my life. Learning to adapt my communication style to many other communication personalities is challenging. I struggle when to be assertive and when to be gentle; I struggle with brutal honesty and care; and I struggle to listen and speak when I’m asked to. Despite my many flaws, I am still used by God to advance his kingdom. None of the biblical figures in the Bible were perfect, except Christ. Moses lacked oratorical skills, Timothy was too young, David was an adulterous, and the list goes on almost indefinitely. Even though as humans we encounter many weaknesses in our lives, with the empowerment of Jesus Christ we can achieve anything he desires us to accomplish. When we do what John the Baptist said in the Gospel of John, “I must become greater; I must become less.” Allowing Christ to penetrate his purpose for us into our lives, our flaws will begin to hinder us no more.
As fallen people we cannot amount to significance without God’s help. No matter how hard we try to achieve, we will always fail if we ignore God. Diligence may be a temporary pain, but in the long it is full of blessings and rewards. Let’s stop leaning on our faith when it feels good, and start resting in our in faith all the time. Without the trials and the fiery furnace of failure and disappointment we will never achieve success and growth.
