Category Archives: Our relationship with God

Stumbling blocks to spiritual growth (part 2)

Posted on February 7, 2014 by | Comments Off on Stumbling blocks to spiritual growth (part 2)

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted the first part of this devotional topic. For those of you who are regular readers of mine, you know that God has placed a burden on my heart to teach Christian discipleship as a means to help others to reach a deeper, richer, more fuller faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Back in January, I began to think about the things in my own life that have held me back from true spiritual growth.  What I came up with were things that not only kept me from spiritual growth but kept me from enjoying the fullness of my faith.

The first post of this series was on January 17th and covered two areas of Christian life that can become spiritual stumbling blocks for younger Christians. These were:

  • We are tempted to return to our old lifestyle
  • We are not obedient in following the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism

Any one of these two can stop our spiritual growth in its tracks.  Unfortunately, there are a lot more things that can keep us from true spiritual growth and from my experience, rarely is it just one area of our life that keeps us from enjoying spiritual growth and the richness of fellowship we can have with the Lord Jesus Christ.  As I mentioned in the first devotional of this series, there are several things that keeps us from having the spiritual growth we should want to have.

We do not have an active and meaningful prayer life:

When I first accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, I didn’t understand the importance of prayer.  Sure, the first church I attended, First Baptist Church of Perkinston, had a great pastor and Sunday school teachers, but for someone who did not grow up in a Christian home, the only real model for prayer I really had been from Sunday morning services when I began regularly attending and what was demonstrated on Wednesday night.  Sure, the television offered the world’s version of prayers which was often done with a mocking, ridiculing attitude.  It was not until sometime in 1997 that I really began to understand what God wants for our prayer life.  During a devotional reading, I came across this passage: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (Matthew 6:6-8).

What I noticed was that God does not want Christians to have a “canned” prayer life.  He does not want us to say the same prayers over and over.  He does not want our prayers to be memorized and recited as many of us had to recite Shakespeare for our high school English classes.  Our prayer must include our heartfelt praise for God, as even Paul and Silas demonstrated: And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them (Acts 16:25). We all know the story – out of their praise and prayers, God lifted them up.  God delivered them.  How many times in my own life have I called upon God and failed to give him the praise and honor; even in my distress, God has been there to deliver me, to bless me, and instead of showing gratitude through prayer, I acted like it was His “divine duty” to rescue me.  When we use canned prayers, our prayers will contain canned praise.  Our praise is then no longer from our hearts.

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Stumbling blocks to spiritual growth

Posted on January 17, 2014 by | Comments Off on Stumbling blocks to spiritual growth

man praying

At one point or another, we all come to the point in our lives where it feels that somehow we have reached a plateau where we have quit growing spiritually; for some, it even goes to the extent that it feels that God has left us.  I know in my own life, beginning when I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I have had to deal with numerous things (and some of them more than once) that have kept me from developing a richer and deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  As a Christian, the truest of our heart’s desire should be to become more Christ-like in our attitude and in the way we treat others.  The more we desire to become more like Him, the more temptations will follow us, the more hardships we will endure – and overcoming each will serve to strengthen our faith.

I was originally going to publish this as a single devotional but after sketching it out, I realized there was enough for a few posts.  I did not place them in any sort of order that may indicate importance nor is this meant to be a complete list of everything that can keep us from experiencing spiritual growth.  These are simply some things that I or others close to me have had to deal with that has kept them from enjoying true spiritual growth.

We attempt to return to our old lifestyle:

No Christian is immune from the pull of our old lifestyle. At some point, every Christian has to battle the pull of their past. This is not necessarily because we find it more exciting than what Christ calls us to, but because we have a tendency to return to what we know and are comfortable with.  As a Christian, a return to our old lifestyle will cause a division between ourselves and the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote, But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage (Galatians 4:9). Even Solomon, considered the wisest of all the ancient kings, understood the problems with the believer who returns to their old lifestyle, The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself (Proverbs 14:14). Yes, a Christian with unrepented sin has a tendency to justify their sins, much like a lost person will do. Although still saved by the grace of God, our old lifestyle and the sins we are predisposed to will place us in a state of rebellion against God.

Being led by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul wrote, Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him (Hebrews 10:38).  The apostle Peter also warns the follower of Christ to avoid the temptations and traps of returning to our old lifestyle: For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire (II Peter 2:20-22). Oh, the wasted years of my life when I was young in the faith!

God makes a provision for us; If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). Just as told in the story of the prodigal son; if we come to God, our heavenly Father and repent of our sins, He will forgive us and restore us into his fellowship.

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Spiritual growth begins with personal evangelism

Posted on January 16, 2014 by | Comments Off on Spiritual growth begins with personal evangelism

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Since the middle of December, I have prayed and asked God to send a personal revival into my life. Although I had rededicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ in 2006, I felt that I had reached a point in my spiritual walk where I only had two choices: spiritual growth or spiritual stagnation.  Although I did accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior in 1988, I had become spiritually stagnant.  There was no spiritual growth and at times, I had little to no excitement about the things of God.  Having been there once already in my life, I have no wish to turn back to that way of life.

This morning, I read a familiar passage of scripture: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Revelation 3:14-18). Now while I realize that it is talking about a particular church/stage of church growth, there is also an application that can be made to the individual believer.  This particular teaching within the book of Revelation was not a new idea recorded by John but is a continuation of the teachings from the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry: No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13).  The lukewarm church – and the lukewarm Christian – while still proclaiming love for Christ is also trying to appease the earthly desires of the flesh.

In December, I began praying for that personal revival, asking God to not only strengthen my walk with Him, but to allow me to become more passionate about my faith. I knew that I didn’t (and still don’t) want to become a lukewarm Christian; I never want to reach a point in my life where I am comfortable about who I am spiritually without any real wish to see further spiritual maturity. I’d much rather hear the Lord describe me as He did David, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will (Acts 13:22) than to have Him say So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16). As I continued my personal Bible reading, I found great comfort in three verses I’ve probably read a few hundred times, When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek (Psalms 27:8), Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified (Psalms 40:16) and O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him (Psalms 34:8).  It’s not because I just discovered them for the first time – it is because I had come to the point that I was ready to listen to what the Lord, through His word, was trying to tell me.

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Posted in Chrisitian Philosophy, Christian Responsibility, Our relationship with God, Personal Evangelism

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