Daily Growth

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Yesterday, we discussed how the process of sanctification is a finished work based on our new nature in Christ. We are commanded by faith to count ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. That makes it sound like I should just sit on the sidelines and let God do everything. After all, you can’t create growth. That’s God’s job.

However, God allows us to be part of the process. We don’t provide the growth, but we can be good farmhands of the soil of our own hearts. Growth in holiness is greatly important, because it serves our ultimate purpose of glorifying God and enjoying him forever. Holiness for holiness’ sake is foolishness. We seek holiness to the glory of Jesus Christ, as a means of deeper fellowship with him.

So what does this look like daily? Growth happens where you live life. It happens in your family, at your school, in the car, on the baseball diamond, etc. Because this is where growth happens, this is also where faith needs to happen. Where you live and work and play, day by day and moment by moment.

With that in mind, here are four decisions of faith that you should make the routine of your life so that you put God at the center of your growth and don’t forget that the goal of growth isn’t holiness or accolades, the goal is deeper relationship with Jesus in faith.

Ask God to Renew your Mind

In the last session, we talked about putting off the old man and putting on the new. But an often forgotten step of that process is renewing your mind. It is this inner renewal that is the key to outer transformation.

Read Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” and 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.“

Unless you begin to think differently, you’ll never begin to live differently. Change happens from the inside out, not the outside in. Renewing your mind is elsewhere called “the mind of Christ.” It is the ability to see things the way God sees them. See how this works in Ephesians 4:25-32:

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Notice how these verses work. They say, Don’t do this, rather do this, because of this. If we fill in the blanks, we can see that this is the same as Put off the Old Self, put on the New Self, by the renewing of your mind.

Put off the Old Self	Put on the New Self	Renewing your Mind
Put off falsehood.	Speak truthfully.	We are all members of one body.
In your anger do not sin.	Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.	Don’t give the devil a foothold.
Steal no longer.	But work.	Have something to share with those in need.
No unwholesome talk.	Build others up.	Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.
Get rid of bitterness, rage, etc.	Be kind and compassionate and forgive.	God in Christ has forgiven you.

Let’s look at one of these as an example. Do you sometimes struggle with your words? Ephesians calls this “unwholesome talk” and he’s not just talking about swear words, but the kind of talking that tear others down; critical, negative, sarcastic words. That is the old self. What will get you to change and put on the new self, described as speech that “builds others up” instead of tearing them down.

It will take a renewed mind. Paul expresses here that it brings grief to God the Holy Spirit when we speak in ways that tear down. Not only are you hurting another person, you are injuring God with your words. Do you think that new mind, that new perspective, might have an effect on your actions?

Please understand that this doesn’t happen in a day. It takes time. It’s like you’ve entered your mind into a great remodeling project. Sometimes when you remodel a house you start to fix one thing and realize that the issue goes deeper and you have to start to pull up floorboards and tear down walls before you are said and done.

God may need to tear down some of your walls before he can redo your wiring. This isn’t always pleasant, but if we have the mind of Christ, and we do according to 1 Corinthians 2:16, then we can know why he is remodeling us, and we can see that he’s shaping us to be more like Jesus.

Practice Spiritual Disciplines

So, we look to God to renew our minds, but I want you to see that the process of growth is also a matter of the habits that we build into our everyday lives. Our habits control the way we think and the direction of our lives more than we imagine. We become defined by whatever we do regularly.

Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
So a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
- Anonymous

When you hear the word “discipline,” what do you think? You might think of an upset parent or a method of punishment. But Paul uses this same word in 1 Timothy 4:7 to refer to the way that we train ourselves in godliness.

This is not doing body building and giving yourself a spiritual workout. Understand that you can’t grow unless God gives the growth, no matter how hard you work at it. Richard Foster wrote a famous book on this subject called Celebration of Discipline, in it he said, “By themselves the spiritual disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done… The disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.”

If you want to buy groceries, it doesn’t do you any good to stay at home. Right? You have to go to the grocery store. If you want to play baseball, that’s not going to happen in your bedroom, you need to go to a baseball field. That’s what Richard Foster means. We often expect God to transform us when we haven’t put ourselves in a position to be changed. That is what these disciplines do.

So what are they? They are the things that you are being told to do all the time in Church. Daily Bible reading, prayer, journaling, fasting, giving to your local church, committing yourself to serve in a group. The are not the things that we must do to grow ourselves. These are the things we do to put ourselves in a place where God can grow us to be more like Jesus.

Trust God in the Circumstances of Life

Have you ever heard that you can’t choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond? That is true not only in relationship to our siblings and classmates, but in our lives as well. God uses the difficulties and trials that we face as part of our normal life to shape us. But it is our choice to respond to them in faith.

James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Did you catch that? He said have joy when you face troubles. So you don’t think that James was crazy, Paul echoes his thought in Romans 5:3, “We also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.“

The most patient people I have ever met are the ones that have the most enduring pain. The most loving people are the ones who have faced the greatest rejection. The most giving people are the ones that keep on giving when there is nothing left to give.

It’s not that every person who has had to endure becomes patient. Some become bitter and enraged. What is the difference? It is in our choice. The choice to recognize that God is at work through the difficulties of life to make you more like Jesus.

Trust God to Finish his Work

As we’ve seen today, God renewing our minds, our spiritual disciplines, and life’s challenges all work together for the believer to mold them into the shape of Jesus. The goal is not just to look like him, but to be like him, and to be with him where he is.

We need to learn from and encourage each other in growth, but we must never set our standard on how other people are doing. If you find someone who is a little further along, then by all means let them help you.

You might look at this goal and think, there’s no way that I can become more like Jesus. I don’t think I can get out of bed every day of my life and muster the motivation to live like he did. Well, it’s a good thing you don;t have to motivate yourself. Growth is not your work. It is God’s work in you and he is motivated enough for all of us.

Hear Paul’s words in Philippians 1:6 and really take this promise to heart, “He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.“

Conclusion

You’ve undoubtedly heard the story of the Little Engine That Could. He persevered and got over the mountain by chanting, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” It’s not a bad children’s story, but we can’t get our philosophy of the Christian life from it.

Think instead of Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on the water in faith with Jesus. If he stepped out with that I think I can attitude, he would have sunk straight to the bottom. Peter’s actions revealed his attitude was not “I think I can,” but rather, “I know I can’t, but Jesus can and he will.”

Pray that God would search your heart to reveal the ways that you need to grow. Pray that he would give you a renewed mind so that you would understand how to put off the old and put on Christ. Pray for faith and diligence in doing the spiritual disciplines of daily Bible study, prayer, etc. Rejoice that God is using your personal circumstances, whether good or bad, to grow you in the likeness of Christ. And thank God that none of this is dependent on you. If it were, it would be doomed from the start, but God is working on your behalf.

Please share a thought, comment, or prayer below.