Growth

Not too long ago someone asked me how we become the people God designed us to be, reaching our fullest potential, discovering our purpose, and living life to the fullest.

It seemed to me that I kind of rambled along and never really gave him an answer he could understand, grasp, and follow. That bothered me so much that it’s been rattling around in my head seeking a better response. As I’ve prayed and asked God to help me clarify this, here is what I’ve come up with.

In Mark 12:30 Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How do we learn to do that? How do we learn to genuinely love God with all of our being? The answer lies in our getting to genuinely know Him. We can never genuinely love someone until we genuinely know them. The first step is for us to get to know God’s character so that we can understand His purpose and His plan.

In Hebrews 11:6 God tells us that we cannot please Him unless we become people of faith. Now you must understand, the context is not saving faith, but faith that moves one to action. This passage is all about people who already had a relationship with God, but then took that next step of moving from their comfort zone to obeying God and accomplishing huge things for His glory. The second step is for us to make the choice to move out of our comfort zone to obeying God’s plan to become a person of faith.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus told us to seek God’s kingdom above anything else, and that the results would be a fulfilled life. We really like the part about a fulfilled life, but we tend to skim over the part about putting God’s kingdom first. In order for us to be fulfilled we must first discover God’s plan for our lives, and the only way to discover God’s plan for our lives is to live life under the direction and control of the Holy Spirit. The third step is for us to come into a close relationship with God so that we surrender our will to Him.

Keep in mind that these steps each involve a decision and then a growing process. They are each something like marriage: there was the day when the wedding took place and you became a husband or wife, but then you began the process of learning what that meant and how to become better at becoming a husband or wife, or a father or mother. In much the same way each of these steps involves decision and growth.

I’d love to hear from you about this. Why don’t you drop me a line?

May our Lord help you to make the choices to become His man or woman, growing to become all He designed you to be.

Jim