Personal Growth
By Pastor Claude Thomas
The birth of a baby is an occasion for celebration. Today, dads gather in the delivery birth room and when the baby is born, everybody celebrates together. But that is only the beginning. More days, weeks, and years follow. What follows after the birth is of great interest to everyone.
When we take our children to the pediatrician, the doctor measures so many things about the child that it is hard to keep up with them. Weight, height, girth, alertness, motor skills, and many other things are measured. Why? They want to measure the growth in all of these areas.
Think about this one. The baby takes its first step. Now that’s an occasion for celebration. Mom and dad are on the floor whooping and hollering. The child looks around in amazement at all the excitement that a single step has caused. Why is that? Because the first step indicates growth is occurring that we can see and measure. We want our children to keep growing.
We see growth is important for a child. Is it important for an adult? A. Lincoln said, “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” (Great Quotes from Great Leaders, p.22).
The Bible calls upon us to reach toward out God-given potential. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18) This is a prescription and an opportunity. “Grow” is a verb of prescription. God told the believers Peter was addressing “to keep growing.”
Someone has noted that growth for a Christian can be seen in three ways: an option to exercise, an obligation to fulfill, or an opportunity to realize.
No doubt growing can be seen as all three wrapped up in one. “To grow as a person and a believer” is an option to exercise. You can continue to grow or you can choose to stagnate.
Cliff Barrows has been a member of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Team for many years. Although he is growing older in years, he said a few years ago, “I am going to continue to change as long as I live.” What was he saying? I will continue to exercise my option to be a growing person. (Graham Missions Metroplex, Texas Stadium Club Room. Celebration Announcement of October 17-20, 2002).
“To grow as a person and a believer” is an option to exercise. It is also an obligation to fulfill. A key to growing is obedience to God and what He says. And He says, “Grow!” To fail here is to fail!!!
That is nowhere more obvious than in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul lost his future because he failed to obey what God told him to do. Obedience is the main essential for us to keep growing in our relationship to Christ, as a person, and in our relationship to others!
“To grow as a person and a believer” is an option to exercise, an obedience to fulfill, and an opportunity to realize. John Maxwell wrote: “God’s gift to me is my potential. My gift back to God is what I do with that potential.” Maxwell. Developing the Leader Within You, p. 148.
To keep growing is an option to exercise, an obligation to fulfill, and an opportunity to realize. Now we realize all of us are not at the same place, but we all have potential to grow. We may not grow at the same rate but all of us can grow. And for you and me to become the best that we can be, the Scriptures teach us that we all have the potential to grow, and we should invest in growing toward what God has for us.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader.
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.