Spiritual Growth #9

We are covering the next four parts of our spiritual growth breakdown and as we go deeper, it is important to remember the reason for all this. Getting closer to God brings us deliverance, and brings heaven down to us on earth. Going deeper gives the opportunity for Christ to live through us and allows the spirit to grow closer to God. 

9. The Church:

The church explained in the bible is meant to be a support system for individual Christians. We were never meant to go through life and grow spiritually closer to God alone. Spiritual growth is not an easy one day process, it takes work. The good thing is, as believers, God allowed for us to have people we can rely on to help us and the other way around. 

I have learned that the term “church” goes beyond the building. Yes, the building gives the opportunity for a larger gathering and more organized setting, but the church travels way beyond those four walls. Recently, because of the virus today in the world we aren't able to physically go to the church building. I’ve found ways to still attend church service online and my friends and I have been doing bible plans using the YouVersion Bible app. Leaning on them to push me to grow closer to God has been great, because we all can relate to each other's lives and be a positive honest influence to each other in areas of our life that we need support in. 

10. Giving:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. - James 1:17 

One of the most important things regarding spiritual growth is understanding that anything we have is not ours, but God’s. Money, talents, property and possessions are things God has given us to simply manage it wisely. 

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

    the world, and all who live in it. - Psalm 24:1

That is why it is a sin to have idols and put things like money or your career before we give back to God and realize that we only have these things because of Him. I think about when I was in college and our coaches would schedule community service projects for our entire team to do. For us as players, it was mandatory but our coaches did this, because they knew how fortunate we all were. To be in the position to play or coach college basketball, very few get the opportunity to do, so we must realize that we have been blessed and try to become a blessing for others. 

11. Trials:

Trials are the test of spiritual growth. The purpose of a trial God creates is to develop us, and allow us to grow and mature spiritually. One thing to understand about trials is, it is created by God and different from the consequences that come from sin. Trials are not easy to handle, and that is because God wants us to get deeper with him. God is in control and even though we may struggle through a trial, we have to remember it has a good purpose. That is why the bible says to be positive and know that a trial is an opportunity to grow in your spiritual life. Also, we must understand that if we have the right attitude, and know that God is in control of all things, then He is in control of your trial and will guide you through it. 

Looking back on my basketball career, I always had a love/hate relationship with the preseason. It was good because the season was upon us, but it required a lot of hard work to prepare for the upcoming season. Conditioning tests, three to four hour practices and heavy weights weren’t to punish us, but just get us ready to have a successful season. Our team goal was to always win a championship so even though we didn’t always enjoy the preseason, we knew how important it was to help us reach our goal. 

12. Temptation:

Temptation to sin is not from God. God won’t cause us to sin, and even though the devil can not make us sin, he will try and trick us into it. An important thing to remember as a believer, is even the devil has to go to God to ask for permission to try and get to us. When it comes to temptation, the devil will use deception, false advertising and persuasion to try to offer you something that looks inviting and influence you to it because he can’t physically force you. While dealing with temptation, we must understand our position in Christ. The devil’s goal is to use sin to break our relationship and growth with God. 

Understanding temptation and how the devil wants to attack you, will help your growth because it will allow you to be more aware and have your eyes on the right prize. The devil tried these same tactics on Jesus, but was not successful and God says that same strength he gave to deliver Jesus from the devil, he has given us. 

 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. - Hebrew 4:15