Spiritual Growth

Is there a preacher anywhere who has not struggled to keep his heart warm and right with God? Don’t all of us have to deal with discouragement, irritation, disappointment, and just plain cold-heartedness from time to time? Here are some suggestions that have helped me warm my own heart.

Many Christians know little about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and particularly about His ministry in their own lives. The Spirit of God is an important theme in Scripture, all the way from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, but the ignorance of even Bible-readers concerning Him is stunning.

Have you ever thought of your trial as a stewardship from God? It is. And when stewarded properly, God will use your trial to give you some of His greatest gifts. God has given us an incredible, amazing resource with which to steward our trials. It’s called grace.

We all hit points of plateau in our Christian life—times when we don’t seem to be growing like we wish or when we are struggling to gain momentum in spiritual growth. Are you there? Do you want off the plateau?

To be a happy Christian, you must have a spiritual homeostatic equilibrium. This is a steady state of maintaining your optimal point or point of finest functioning for the Lord.

When the twelve spies returned from their foray into the Promised Land, all of them gave testimony to seeing the same things. They all saw a fertile land that flowed with milk and honey and they saw the fruit that the land produced such as the grapes of Eshcol.

Our natural tendency is to create our own definitions of purity—building longer and more impressive lists of rules every year. But if we want to please God, we must get our definition of pure religion from the Bible.

During suffering, realities of life change our perspective on priorities. Suddenly, the trivial and petty things that used to mean so much to us, mean almost nothing. Through these times, God refocuses our vision and realigns our priorities with His.

Without hesitation, I can say that God has done His greatest works in my life through seasons of adversity. Sometimes, however, in moments of introspection we wonder, Why all the suffering?

Perhaps it was ingrained into our minds during elementary school, but there is something about summertime that seems to change people’s thinking. Even adults seem to develop a kind of “recess mentality” that focuses on self and lets responsibility slide.

We go to prayer conferences and even preach on prayer. But do we truly pray? I found the following thoughts about prayerlessness to be thought provoking and decided to share them with you.

I wonder what my spirit would have been like as a fourteen year old boy if I had been abducted by invading conquerors and taken seven hundred miles from home to serve in a foreign country.

One of the things that I like about our calendar system is that every 24 hours we get a brand new day that affords us the opportunity of a fresh start. Here we are in 2011.

Everybody has a worldview! From the pigmy tribes in the Congo to the cufflink staffer in the White House, everybody has a philosophy of how they view the world.

The Bible speaks of ways that we can break our oneness with the Holy Spirit. It speaks of grieving Him, quenching Him, and resisting Him.

Oftentimes in our churches, pastors are confronted with those who have blown it spiritually. These folks feel like “leftovers” or “has-beens.”

The spiritual health of those we minister to is directly related to our own spiritual health.

No one expects a little child to learn to walk on his own, but sometimes we forget that baby Christians need help in learning to walk in the Spirit.

My son came to me the other day and said, with a slight whine in his voice, “Dad, can you make church not so long tonight?”

I’ve always appreciated the fervor for soulwinning, passion for Bible study, heart for Christian growth that D.L. Moody communicates in his writing.