The Christian life is a movement toward spiritual maturity. Your experience of following Jesus should be taking you somewhere. The goal of your growth ought to be that you are being “transformed” into the image of the glory of God.
The question that needs to be asked is, what does spiritual development look like? Well, it always shows progression. It is never fully reached, but it should mean that you are more self-controlled this year than you were last year, more kind this month than you were last month, more trusting of God and His direction today than you were yesterday.
Spiritual maturity does not mean sinless perfection. Anybody who tells you that you can go through life and never sin has just sinned because that’s a lie. But spiritual development does refer to spiritual maturity, where the normal thing for you to do is to bring every area of your life under the influence and lordship of Jesus Christ. It is growing to the place where you think, speak and react biblically to every situation—when it is the rule (and not the exception) for you to apply scriptural principles to your life.Being spiritually mature means modeling your life after Jesus so that you reflect Him in what you do, say and think.
Another aspect of spiritual maturity in the Christian’s life is passing that growth onto those around you. Paul put it in personal terms. He said, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Now I’m not sure many of us would want to sign our names under a bold statement like the one above, but there is nothing wrong with following people if those people are following Christ. A major part of Paul’s ministry was transferring what he had been entrusted with to others.
If you continue to take in the Word of God but don’t do your spiritual exercises by applying it and passing it along to others, you get spiritually stunted in your growth. In order to continue toward maturity, you need to share the things you learn and have applied with others, just like Paul did.
Even if you haven’t gone that far in your Christian life, you can help somebody coming along behind you.
And as our way of saying thank you for your prayers and partnership with this radio broadcast ministry, we’re making available to you The Spiritual Toolkit, a special hand-picked CD compilation of some of our most sought-out messages to bless you in your spiritual growth.
May God richly bless you as you seek Him and His plan for your life!
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