I joined the wrestling team my first year in high school. The night before one of my first wrestling matches, our coach had us weigh in to see if would make our weight class the next day. I was wrestling at the 148 lbs. class and when I stepped on the scale, it came it at 149.0. The coach instructed me “...to not let anything pass my lips until after weigh-ins tomorrow.’ Those are pretty clear instructions. That was at 6pm and weigh-ins were at 3pm the next day. I fought hard to follow my coaches instructions but after thinking about eating for several hours, I determined that a couple of oranges and water wouldn’t hurt. I felt so much better after eating those oranges. I did not let anything (else) pass my lips. At 2:15pm or so, the coach had us weigh in ‘unofficially’, he didn’t want any surprises at the ‘official’ weigh-ins at 3pm. I stepped on the scale and it read 148.5 lbs. I was over weight by .5 pounds the coach was not happy. The consequence was that I could not wrestle that day. All of the hard work I had put in to win my position was for naught that day. I clearly knew what it took to be successful and choose to do something different, something that I wanted to do. I not only was not able to compete that day, I also let down my team, I lost some of my coaches confidence in me and I lost the opportunity to gain some valuable wrestling experience. Personal responsibility is always necessary for growth whether it is sports or our spiritual lives.
When people see others who are getting spiritually fit, they feel a deep desire to be on that same path. A maturing spiritual life is attractive, consistent and powerful. It is good to want to grow spiritually and it is something every believer should be doing throughout their whole life. We must always remember we are in a marathon, not a sprint. When people see people maturing spiritually, they often want to know what they need to do to grow likewise.
The Apostle Peter wrote two letters to people who were dispersed from their homelands because they believed in Jesus Christ and let others know it. They were persecuted and going through difficult times. In his second letter, Peter briefly outlines in the first chapter some principles and truths that we should think deeply upon (meditate) regarding how to grow spiritually. Here are those very important verses.
2 Peter 1:5-10
5 So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. 6 Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. 7 Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or, at least, very shortsighted. They have already forgotten that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin. 10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away.
Notice that Peter is instructing every believer (including me and you) to ‘make every effort to apply the benefits...’ (v. 5). This requires personal responsibility, internal motivation and a focus that is solidly upon becoming more like Jesus. Peter ends his list of character traits and principles by promising us that if we do them, ‘...we will never stumble or fall away.’ (v. 10)!
Recently I met with a person who commented how much she appreciated my emphasis on multiplication of disciples instead of adding people to attend. This person recognized this as true and necessary for the church to thrive and expand. After those nice words, I asked her if she was applying the truth of multiplication that she so appreciated? Her answer was ‘Not yet.’, but appreciated the challenge. Multiplying disciples is only as good of an idea as it is implemented by each individual (me and you).
The easiest, most reproducible and proven tool that I have found to help people grow spiritually are Life Transformation Groups (LTG’s). Making disciples is both easy (anyone can do an LTG) and hard (searching for other desperate people and being faithful to the process takes discipline and perseverance). What is needed is for women and men to take their growing spiritually seriously and make every effort to do it. The world needs you and I to be as serious as possible about our faith.
So the bottom line of my thoughts today is that you and I are responsible for our spiritual growth and for giving it away to others. Are we making ‘every effort‘ to grow? Are we choosing to search for people interested in knowing Jesus better and handing off what we know to them? If we are not, when will it be a good time to begin?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
When people see others who are getting spiritually fit, they feel a deep desire to be on that same path. A maturing spiritual life is attractive, consistent and powerful. It is good to want to grow spiritually and it is something every believer should be doing throughout their whole life. We must always remember we are in a marathon, not a sprint. When people see people maturing spiritually, they often want to know what they need to do to grow likewise.
The Apostle Peter wrote two letters to people who were dispersed from their homelands because they believed in Jesus Christ and let others know it. They were persecuted and going through difficult times. In his second letter, Peter briefly outlines in the first chapter some principles and truths that we should think deeply upon (meditate) regarding how to grow spiritually. Here are those very important verses.
2 Peter 1:5-10
5 So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. 6 Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. 7 Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or, at least, very shortsighted. They have already forgotten that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin. 10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away.
Notice that Peter is instructing every believer (including me and you) to ‘make every effort to apply the benefits...’ (v. 5). This requires personal responsibility, internal motivation and a focus that is solidly upon becoming more like Jesus. Peter ends his list of character traits and principles by promising us that if we do them, ‘...we will never stumble or fall away.’ (v. 10)!
Recently I met with a person who commented how much she appreciated my emphasis on multiplication of disciples instead of adding people to attend. This person recognized this as true and necessary for the church to thrive and expand. After those nice words, I asked her if she was applying the truth of multiplication that she so appreciated? Her answer was ‘Not yet.’, but appreciated the challenge. Multiplying disciples is only as good of an idea as it is implemented by each individual (me and you).
The easiest, most reproducible and proven tool that I have found to help people grow spiritually are Life Transformation Groups (LTG’s). Making disciples is both easy (anyone can do an LTG) and hard (searching for other desperate people and being faithful to the process takes discipline and perseverance). What is needed is for women and men to take their growing spiritually seriously and make every effort to do it. The world needs you and I to be as serious as possible about our faith.
So the bottom line of my thoughts today is that you and I are responsible for our spiritual growth and for giving it away to others. Are we making ‘every effort‘ to grow? Are we choosing to search for people interested in knowing Jesus better and handing off what we know to them? If we are not, when will it be a good time to begin?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
