2012: A Year To Grow

This year we have the opportunity to grow. We will even help you with continued Life Groups, Classes, opportunities to give your life away through service and teachings that you can apply to your life. But the truth is that no one else can really help you grow. It is up to you to position yourself to expand your faith and be better. Your spiritual growth is not that complicated. The movement of growth is your pursuit of more of God. The measurement of growth is love. If someone asks how my spiritual life is going, the two diagnostic questions are: Am I pursuing God more and am I growing more or less loving, these days? Our goal for 2012 is simple: Pursue God more, Love God more and love people more. The pursuit of God and the love of God are intrinsically connected. And the love of God and the love of people are also intrinsically connected. If we pursue God, His love will touch our hearts and when His love touches our hearts we will love what He loves and that is people.

A good verse to consider is Hebrews 5: 12 – 14
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. (NIV)

Chuck Swindoll shares that humans are odd creatures. He says, ‘We run faster when we lose our way. Instead of pausing to regroup, we ricochet from place to place. Three words describe our times: hurry, worry, and bury. In this race called life, when the pressing demands of time are upon us, we need to stop and get oriented. We need to discover that the Lord is God. He will be exalted; He is with us; He is our stronghold.’

I don’t know if your parents had a spot on a wall or door jam where they made pencil marks to show how much you grew each year. My parents did that. It was really great during the growth spurts of my sister, brother or me. At some point the marks stop. We outgrow the being measured by lines. But do we keep growing? If not, why does it stop?

God has given us so many tools for growth. The bible, prayer, worship, gratitude, forgiveness, people who sharpen us….and He has given us our church. This church offers opportunities to grow through Life Groups (coming up) serving teams (growth happens when you give yourself away) relationships, group teachings and more.

There is no one means to instant spiritual growth. It’s a painstaking process that God takes us through, and it includes such things as waiting, failing, losing, and being disappointed and of course, being misunderstood—each one of these experiences is an opportunity to grow and stretch our faith, trust in God, forgive others and forgive ourselves. In your own spiritual growth, where are the marks on the wall or door jam of your life? Where do you stand as you think of 2011?

Christian growth comes through hard-core, gutsy perseverance of applying what you hear and read and obeying it.

 Christian growth comes through pursing God and falling more in love with Him.

Christian growth comes through loving others more and putting them above yourself.

Spiritual growth is not complicated.

Let’s grow in 2012.

See you next to the door jam,

Pastor Bernie

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