Tag Archives: growing

May 1, 2023 · 5:38 AM

A Little Bit Better

I love watching the Olympics every four years. It’s not just the competition that draws me, it’s the desire of these people to get better. They dedicate so much of their life to be the best they can be. I remember watching Michael Phelps compete during several Olympic Games. We cheered when he broke the world record and won gold. We cheered again when he broke his own world record. Did you know he broke his own world record seven times? That’s insane to me! He kept pushing himself to get better all the time. When asked about it, he said, “Yesterday doesn’t matter. It’s about who can get their hand on the wall first today.” That attitude pushed him to not settle.

In the book of Acts, we read about a preacher named Apollos. Chapter 18 says he was making a name for himself because he was passionate for Jesus and was powerful in the Scriptures. He was an educated and cultured person who was winning many to the Lord. When a couple of believers in Ephesus heard him preach, they noticed he was only preaching about the baptism of John and not of the Holy Spirit as well. They took him aside privately to discuss it with him. Instead of letting his pride get in the way, he listened and learned so he could grow. His preaching and life became even more powerful. It even says that after that he became a tremendous help to the believers and caused them to grow in grace. His desire to grow in the Lord and learn more about Scripture caused him to be a force to be reckoned with in the Early Church.

Even Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament wanted to grow and know Christ more fully. In Philippians 3:12 he wrote, “I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own” (TPT). If Paul was on a constant journey of growth and pursuit of trying to get closer to Jesus, so should we. When we compare ourselves to others, we can get prideful and complacent. However, when we compare ourselves to Jesus, we realize we still have growth opportunities ahead of us. The Christian life is one of constant growth and pursuing Jesus. You will always have the opportunity to get a little bit better and little bit closer to Jesus.

Photo by Richard R. Schünemann on Unsplash

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December 21, 2020 · 5:53 AM

Growing In Grace

If you ever see my son, most of the time it feels like he’s wearing high water pants. No matter what we do, we just can’t seem to keep pants that fit him. He’s constantly growing and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. We always joke with him about it asking him if he can stop it or grow younger instead. Even as a child he knows that you can’t stop growth and that it happens naturally. It’s the same thing in the animal kingdom, with plants and most living things. They naturally grow and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. God designed physical growth to be natural, but he made other types of growth to require effort in order to create it. If you want to grow your knowledge, you need to apply effort in education. If you want to grow your muscles, you need to apply effort in working out. There are many things like this in life including your spiritual growth.

One of the main concerns of the writers of the New Testament was our spiritual growth. It’s not the type of growth that occurs naturally like physical growth. It’s like the others where it requires effort and discipline on our part. They wanted us to know that there’s more to Christianity than just accepting Jesus as our savior. That’s the beginning of a lifetime of growth. Sadly, for many Christians, the stop there or just past that point in their growth. They fail to adopt spiritual disciplines that will help them grow closer to Christ and to become more like Him in their life. The writer of Hebrews, Peter and Paul all addressed Christians to encourage them to move from milk to meat and to go from infants to mature believers (Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Peter 2:2, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

Peter addresses is again in 2 Peter 3:18. He wrote, “But continue to grow and increase in God’s grace and intimacy with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” (TPT). Growing into mature believers is our goal, but it requires that we do more than go to church once a week. It requires reading the Bible, doing Bible studies, spending time in prayer, reflecting on Scripture, sharing our faith and applying what we’ve learned. If we do these things, we will grow in God’s grace and in our intimacy with Him. The point of sending His Son to save us was the restore the relationship between us. Growth in relationships don’t occur naturally. It requires that we spend time getting to know the other person. The more our relationship grows with someone, the more we adopt parts of their personality into our life. The same is true when we grow our relationship with God. We become more like Him and that’s His desire for each of us.

Photo by Akil Mazumder from Pexels

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October 2, 2020 · 5:53 AM

Maturing In The Faith

When my wife and I first got married, I didn’t trust her intuition. She would say, “I don’t think we should go there.” When I asked her why we shouldn’t, she couldn’t give an answer and would just say she had a feeling. If I really wanted to, then I would make the decision and we would go anyway. Something would happen, and she would be right. Other times, she would come home, talk about an issue she had somewhere, and I would tell her how to solve it. It turned out that most of the time, she just needed to vent or process the situation and didn’t need me to solve it. Over time, I’ve learned to be a better husband in these two areas. I’ve learned to trust her intuition and stay quiet (sometimes). We’re both thankful I’m not the same as when we first got married. I’ve matured in several areas and I’ve still got room to grow.

If growth and maturity are expected in spousal relationships, why would we think it would be any different in our relationship with Jesus? You shouldn’t be in the same place you were when you first believed. Growth and maturity are expected. As you spend time in prayer and reading the Bible, your faith and trust in God should grow. With that growth comes behavioral change on your part. Maturity shows up in different ways in us. Instead of complaining or asking God to remove us from His growth and character development processes, we begin to ask Him for the grace to endure them and for Him to create well developed fruit in our lives through them.instead of ignoring the promptings of the Holy Spirit to say something to someone, we push past the fear and trust what He says. Each of us have room to grow, and that maturity happens when we trust God more tomorrow than we do today.

Here are some Bible verses on maturing in our faith.

1. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above. All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you.

Philippians 3:14-15 GNT

2. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.

Hebrews 6:1 NLT

3. So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

2 Peter 1:5-9 MSG

4. But the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Christian] judges all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals], yet is himself judged by no one [the unbeliever cannot judge and understand the believer’s spiritual nature].

1 Corinthians 2:15 AMP

5. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my Father!

John 15:8 TPT

Photo by Brandon Green on Unsplash

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February 5, 2018 · 6:04 AM

Seeing Blind Spots

Several times a year my boss, or one of my peers, comes to observe me doing my job. They take notes on the things they see, and then at the end of the day we discuss what they saw. They usually start with the good behaviors they see, and remind me why those things matter. Then they move into areas where I didn’t execute very well. There are places where I could have been quicker, or that I could have skipped doing without realizing it. Then they make suggestions for my improved performance.

It’s difficult hearing other people’s input on my work, but it’s a necessary step for improvement. They are able to see things that I’m blind to. Sometimes I get caught up doing things the same way, over and over, because i don’t stop to ask, “Is this the best way to be doing that?” Having that outside set of eyes, not only sees those things, but it also gets input on how to do things better. Each of us have areas where we can get better in our lives and in our walk with the Lord.

When Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he automatically became their judge for disputes. Some times it would take up a whole day just trying to resolve disputes among the people. In Exodus 18, his father in law observed him and asked, “When Jethro saw everything that Moses had to do, he asked, “What is all this that you are doing for the people? Why are you doing this all alone, with people standing here from morning till night to consult you?” (GNT) He then provided him a more efficient way to help others.

As I said earlier, it’s not easy to hear someone else’s opinion on how they think you should be doing things, but I’ve found it helps me to improve. It’s good for each of us to have an accountability partner who can see the things we are blind to. It’s also important to give them the ability to question you without fear. If you’re trying to get to that next level, it often requires an outside set of eyes from someone you trust. Their insights and ability to see your blind spots could be the key to a deeper relationship with Christ or to help you exponentially improve what you’re doing for Christ.

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March 7, 2014 · 7:47 AM

Free From Drifting

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It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back. To celebrate, I’m giving away “Great Leaders Grow: Becoming A Leader For Life” by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

I grew up playing in creeks that were near my house. When I would visit my grandmother, we would cross a huge cow pasture and go down to the creek to swing on vines and jump in it. Later in life, I went to the Frio river in west Texas to float down it. I’ve even been to the Nile river and taken a sail boat out on it several times. One thing I’ve learned about creeks and rivers is that they always take the path of least resistance. The get to their destination, but it takes a lot longer than it has to because they twist and wind instead of going on a straight line.

In life, I’ve found that I’m not much different than a river at times. I’ve let my life wander and meander wherever it took me. I’ve lost site of where I was going a time or two. I’ve been beat against the rocks and sent a different direction. I’ve forgotten where I was headed and pooled up at that spot. Something will inevitably happen, the dam will break and off I go again to wherever life takes me. Does that sound like you too? I don’t think that’s how God intended us to live our lives though.

I believe we are to live our lives on purpose. I believe we are to make paths where there aren’t any. God doesn’t want us to meander through life taking the path of least resistance. He wants us to pursue Him and go to the places where others won’t. He wants us to be leaders, not followers. He put in each one of us the ability to grow and the ability to lead. Too often we only think of ourselves as followers because we’re all following somebody. We forget to look behind us and see that there are others who are following us. Don’t believe me? Look at your Facebook page. How many friends do you have following you? Exactly! Some may have more than others, but each of us have someone following us.

It’s important that we lead with purpose and conviction. It’s important that we grow. I heard Harry Connick, Jr. say something profound this week. He said, “Do the things that are hard. Do the things that are uncomfortable and you’ll get better.” He’s saying that we won’t get better or grow unless we’re willing to do things that are not on the path of least resistance. He’s saying we have to do things that push us out of our normal, every day routines if we’re going to grow. If you want a better relationship with God, get up earlier and spend more time with Him. If you want more understanding of scripture, take a Bible course. If you want to be a better leader, force yourself to grow.

I like to tell people that I grow the most when I fail. I only fail when I take risks that put me in position to fail. I also gain the most ground when those risks pay off. It’s all about perspective. Failure to me is an opportunity to grow and get better. It’s a way to learn how not to do something. I don’t look at it as embarrassing or demoralizing. It’s actually energizing and challenging. Whether you fail taking a risk in life or for Christ, you will learn something new. You will find growth. Don’t just take the path of least resistance. Make a straight line for your goal and get there. Paul said that he pressed on for the (not drifted to the) high calling and we should too!

If you would like to win “Great Leaders Grow” by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller, all you have to do is go to my Facebook page here and “like” it. I will randomly pick one person tomorrow (March 8, 2014) who has liked my page. If you have already liked my page and enjoy reading these daily devotionals, you are already entered. Please invite your friends to like my page so they can receive encouragement from God’s Word too.

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