I don’t need a spiritual coach—or do I? I’m not an outstanding golfer. I enjoy golfing, but to be candid, I’m a duffer, not a golfer. I don’t play enough to correct whatever I’m doing wrong. Super-athletes report how a coach helped them change their naïve, inhibiting habits which led them to major improvements in their game. The most common hinderance to improvement is incorrect thinking. The fact is, until a person realizes he/she must take serious initiative to practice correct habits, they will never become the hero of their dreams. Skills rarely just happen. They develop by persistently pushing to make slight improvements each week or month.
An inhibiting factor to spiritual growth is the lack of recognizing that salvation is not a onetime decision, it is a process. A good start in a race certainly helps, but does not determine the winner. Spiritual life begins BEFORE surrendering one’s life to Christ. And it is not over until one’s death or Christ returns to take them to His Heaven. Committing one’s life to Christ is a most significant mile-maker, but it is not the finish line. This commitment is not a single choice but a lifestyle. The Holy Spirit continues to fulfil His work in shaping and reshaping us until the day of salvation from sin will be complete. Our commitment requires us to continue running hard for the finish line.
Paul wrote For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing [a verb in original Greek], but to us who are being saved [a verb in original Greek] it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18, ESV). A word-picture of being saved is Jeremiah’s lesson at the potter’s house. If the clay wouldn’t adapt to what the potter wanted to shape, he would crush it and remake it into a different pot (Jeremiah 18:4, MSG). God does the same with each of us unless we are too stubborn.
If there is an imperfection in me that won’t work out, God will crush me and remake me. My stubbornness minimizes His work in my lives. But when I acknowledge and change that faulty thinking, my humility allows the Spirit to proceed in shaping me into His likeness. Along the spiritual journey, there lay strewn the discarded clay of far too many self-centered spiritual adolescents instead of moldable spiritual adults. It is only because they have embraced deceptive, unpliable thinking.
Salvation is a daily miracle requiring continual active faith. It requires being constantly attached to Christ, just as a branch is bonded to the vine.
When discouraged because you are not seeing the spiritual progress you would like, take comfort in this truth. Your salvation is a journey with every failure, disappointment, and victory serving a meaningful role—if you allow it to do so. It is healthy to look back occasionally in recent months and compare your current spiritual condition with your past. If your responses in trials, value system, way of thinking continue to reflect Jesus more clearly, then rejoice. But if you sense a nudging to recalibrate, pay attention. Paul described we are continuing to run this race until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, NIV). …we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church (Ephesians 4:15, NLT2). We are on this journey together, so let’s do what we can to support those around us, especially when they make choices in becoming mature in Christ.
Your words always challenge me! Thanks