Spiritual Growth Gauge
How do we measure are spiritual growth? How do we know if we are growing in our relationship with God?
Next week I am going to be posting about spiritual habits that I think are important for my life and my relationship with God. However, before I do this I want to make it clear that doing these types of things don't make me spiritual or mean that I am any closer to God. They will help us though. The spiritual habits are practices that help me to encounter God in the midst of my ordinary life. The habits that we are going to look at are practices that God promises us that we can encounter Him in. Practices like prayer, worship, meditation on God's word, service, Christian interaction, and sharing our faith are helpful and necessary for us if we are going to live out our relationship with God in a real way. But, they cannot be mistaken for our relationship with God. We can't use them as a checklist and say I did all these things so I must be growing.
So today, I want us to think about what the true gauge of our spiritual life is. Here is a hint for my Dockery family. We have been talking about it at church for the past three weeks. In fact, I hope we talk about it every week. The only gauge that there is to measure are growth in our relationship with God or not-- is our love. Love is the only measure. You see the promise of the scripture is that we will grow in our love of God and our love of others as we live in Christ and allow him to live in us. The promise is that we will continually become more loving.
If we want to know if we are living in relationship with God all we have to do is look at our love. Do we love God more today than we did yesterday, or last week, or last year? Do we love others more? That is the only measure that there is. We can read our bibles, go to church, hang out with Christians, share our faith, serve, and pray but If we don't grow in our love than they are just empty rituals. The Good News is that God has promised to meet us in these types of practices and God has promised that when we encounter him in our lives we are never the same. He will change us to have a heart like his.
How are you doing at love today?
In Christ's love and Mine,
Doug
Next week I am going to be posting about spiritual habits that I think are important for my life and my relationship with God. However, before I do this I want to make it clear that doing these types of things don't make me spiritual or mean that I am any closer to God. They will help us though. The spiritual habits are practices that help me to encounter God in the midst of my ordinary life. The habits that we are going to look at are practices that God promises us that we can encounter Him in. Practices like prayer, worship, meditation on God's word, service, Christian interaction, and sharing our faith are helpful and necessary for us if we are going to live out our relationship with God in a real way. But, they cannot be mistaken for our relationship with God. We can't use them as a checklist and say I did all these things so I must be growing.
So today, I want us to think about what the true gauge of our spiritual life is. Here is a hint for my Dockery family. We have been talking about it at church for the past three weeks. In fact, I hope we talk about it every week. The only gauge that there is to measure are growth in our relationship with God or not-- is our love. Love is the only measure. You see the promise of the scripture is that we will grow in our love of God and our love of others as we live in Christ and allow him to live in us. The promise is that we will continually become more loving.
If we want to know if we are living in relationship with God all we have to do is look at our love. Do we love God more today than we did yesterday, or last week, or last year? Do we love others more? That is the only measure that there is. We can read our bibles, go to church, hang out with Christians, share our faith, serve, and pray but If we don't grow in our love than they are just empty rituals. The Good News is that God has promised to meet us in these types of practices and God has promised that when we encounter him in our lives we are never the same. He will change us to have a heart like his.
How are you doing at love today?
In Christ's love and Mine,
Doug
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