Our health depends on having a daily regimen; eating good food, getting exercise, and having proper sleep. We can’t decide on Tuesday not to eat anything, gorge on Wednesday, and on Thursday get drunk, while on Friday we attempt to run ten miles. We can’t expect heath if we burn the candle at both ends, eat junk food and rarely sleep or exercise. In a similar way, we can’t expect to grow in grace through irregular habits.
While our bodies may tell us when we are hungry or thirsty, our souls may not remind us of our need for regular spiritual nourishment unless we establish good spiritual habits. In this 18th post on redemption, I discuss the need for a plan to grow in grace. The goal, as we’ve seen, is sanctification—the process of becoming more like Christ, more holy in our living, more loving in our relationships. We need a way of reminding ourselves daily of the importance of exercising the disciplines that lead to growth.
Clearly, we need daily Bible study. In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth” (John 17:17). The Psalmist knew how important it was to daily meditate, memorize and live according to the Scriptures. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you…I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word” (Psalm 119: 9, 11,15,16).
Paul writing to Timothy reminded him that “from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures…All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2Tim. 3:15-17). All Scripture can contribute to our growth!
It is impossible to live a godly, Christ-centred life without a steady diet of Scripture. We need to set up a plan to read through the whole Bible, to meditate on key sections, memorize important verses and pray for its teaching to feel our souls and transform our lives.
We also must develop a prayer life. Jesus taught his disciples to pray. (See the model prayer in Matt. 6: 5-17.) The disciples saw Jesus’ life saturated with prayer. The Spirit enabled them to overhear his prayer to the Father in John 17. With each piece of armour described in Ephesians six, Paul urges us to; “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). Do you and I have a prayer list of other believers and their needs? Do we pray for those in government? Do we pray for our missionaries? Do we spend time not only in intercession but worship, praise and thanksgiving? How transforming it is to list all our blessings, to meditate on the attributes of God, to worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We also need weekly fellowship with the family of God. In a period when more and more people assume that they can worship from home and do not need to meet with other believers face-to-face, we read that the first Christians; “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the FELLOWSHIP, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ..All the believers were together…Every day they continued to meet together…They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:42ff). And God turned the world upside down through them.
Few of us can meet daily. But we must meet at least weekly. Are we better than they that we don’t need fellowship and encouragement from other believers? No!! “Let us not give up meeting together as the some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25).
The means of grace; Bible input, prayer and fellowship with other believers. God also uses trouble and suffering to help us grow, but we can’t schedule that. We can set up a daily/weekly plan of Bible immersion and prayer. Do you want to grow? Set up a plan. Don’t just plan for retirement or education of career—give time for sanctification.
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