Looking Back on Growth and Progress

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Many years ago my mother gave me a precious scrapbook that she had made of my early childhood school papers. I opened it and a world of past history fell before my eyes. There were papers I had colored with my tiny hands using crayola crayons long since discarded. There were school reading assignments spouting sentences such as, “See Spot run. Run Spot run.” There was a pencil drawing I had made at Thanksgiving one year which showed figures near a group of trees that appeared to be that of a turkey and a puritan, although the only way you tell them apart was that the puritan had on a black hat. As I thumbed through these records of my skills and abilities as a youth I couldn’t help be amazed at how far I had come. My children couldn’t believe it as well. For them to see the handiwork of dad when he was six to eight years old was amazing to them. Thank goodness I write somewhat longer sentences now that hopefully make more sense then describing how a dog runs. As I contemplated the growth and maturation that had taken place from childhood both physically, emotionally as well as intellectually, I couldn’t help thinking, “What sort of progress had I made spiritually?”

 

I believe that most of us fail to take an inventory of our spiritual growth. We pride ourselves in becoming adults and making those graduation steps of qualifying to drive a car, being able to vote and being out on our own. We relish the freedom of adulthood as we demonstrate that we can be relied upon to show up for work and serve our employer. But how many of us evaluate where we are this year compared to last year with our spiritual maturity? Do we set goals for ourselves spiritually? Have we grown in our spiritual condition since last year or the year before?

 

Scripture gives us evidence that there is an expectation from God that spiritual growth should take place as a Christian lives his or her life. Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” This good work begins the day you give your life to Christ and recognize Him as Lord of your life. On that day you become a child of God and enter into His family. We are spiritually born as babes in Christ and are new creations. (2 Corinthians 5:17) From this day forth we are expected to grow spiritually just like we do physically. This is expected to continue as you live as a Christian, a Disciple of Christ.

 

Physically we grow in height and strength. Emotionally we grow in stability and maturity. Intellectually we grow in knowledge and hopefully wisdom. Spiritually we should grow in the strength of our faith and our knowledge of scripture. We should grow in our trust of our Lord and the veracity of His Word. We should grow in our desire to serve God and the needs of others. We should grow in our motivation to share the gospel of good news with those we meet. We should grow in our understanding of God’s Word and the wisdom that comes from obeying it.

 

We are told something about this process in 2 Timothy 3:13-15 where it says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

 

Paul is writing Timothy here and telling him to continue in what he has learned and he will become wise. This verse speaks to us today just as it did to Timothy in his time. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 goes on to say, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Here we see the necessity of looking to the Word of God for the training tools to grow in our Christian life. The words used here of “teaching,” “correcting,” and “training” are growth words in a sense. They are words implying progression from youth to adulthood, from uninformed to informed, from uneducated to educated, from spiritually immature to mature.

 

When we are young in Christ we are instructed in 1 Peter 2:1-3 to desire spiritual food that we can digest with our young spiritual minds and hearts. It says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” As we “grow up in our salvation” we can then take on more “meaty” spiritual food as our faith is strengthened. Hopefully as we live our Christian life we continue to mature and grow in knowledge, wisdom, trust in the Lord and desire to serve God by serving others.

 

But what happens if we spend years living our Christian life and we don’t see spiritual growth? What if years or decades go by and it is difficult for us or others to see that we have progressed at all in our relationship with our Lord and Master Jesus Christ? Possibly we are like some of the Christians Paul ministered to and discipled in his journeys. He writes about such individuals in several different letters that are recorded in the New Testament.

 

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

“Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”

 

Hebrews 5:11-14

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

 

These verses don’t paint a very good picture of those Paul was writing to. He accuses the Corinthian believers as being “worldly.” He expected them to have made progress since his last visit and instruction and they have made little or no progress in their spiritual growth. In Hebrews he makes similar statements about those Christians as well. He is disappointed and knows that God is as well. God adopts us into His family not so we can coast along in life feeding on spiritual milk all our lives. What if our clothing reflected our spiritual condition? Would many of us be found in diapers still?

 

As we enter each new year it is always a good time to take stock of where we have been and where we are going in our relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit as well as how we are maturing as a Child of God. Are we progressing not just in knowledge of Holy Scripture, which is very good, but are we growing in how we apply it and are we growing significantly in how much more we resemble Christ in our thoughts and actions? I would challenge you to review the last year or so and evaluate how much you have grown spiritually. Consider setting some goals for this next year. I’m not talking necessarily about going to church more, praying more consistently or studying the Bible more often, although those are very good ways to demonstrate your faith and grow more mature spiritually. I’m talking about seeking and praying that God will work on you this year because you are willing for Him to, to conform you more into the image of Christ. I am confident that if you seek and pray to be more Christ-like, God will work wonderfully and majestically in your life so that next year at this time you will be amazed at how much you have grown spiritually, how much you have impacted the lives of others how much more you resemble Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior.

 

Remember Philippians 1:6

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”