Growth requires action

When we grow spiritually we perform many tasks. Exploring the depths of our souls and facing the truth about ourselves can be hard and sometimes very scary work. This work requires love and support from God and others. Love is a motivator. Love is the fuel for growth. Energized by those who care for us, we are able to carry out these tasks. The following areas are the stuff of growth that requires action, activity, partnership, or some initiative on your part:

Reconciliation verses fairness: An active stance towards growth requires we give more consideration and action to reconciliation than to fairness. Rather than waiting for the other person who has hurt us to come make repentance, we need to take the initiative to reconcile because some people are not even aware of their actions and attitudes, much less failing to take responsibility for it. If someone has something against us, we are to go to him (Matthew 5:23-24). If we have something against another, we are also to go to him (Matthew 18:15). God is always our role model: He searched us out and solved our problem of alienation from Him even though He would have been justified if He had not taken any action towards redeeming us. God gave up His demand for fairness for the sake of relationship. Grace interrupts the cycle of sowing and reaping, and the law of cause and effect.

Ownership and responsibility: Many people do not take responsibility for their own lives. They remain stuck because they want other people to change. They want other people to make it better but usually those people will not. As a result, they are in bondage to them. Freedom comes from taking responsibility. When we are active in our growth, we are more likely to take ownership and responsibility for our lives. The experience of being involved, learning, gaining understanding, taking risks, and opening up to others about our lives, increases the level of ownership we have in the process. When people are passive about their growth, they tend to let others control them and see forces outside of themselves as being the ones in charge of their lives. The more you own your life and take responsibility for your growth, the more things change for the better. When we fail to take responsibility, we are in bondage. Bondage comes from giving responsibility away to those who do not have our best interest such as an abuser or controller.

Learning from failure: Being active in your own growth requires some risk. We risk making mistakes and failure. When people seek to grow spiritually, they soon realize that they will be trying new ways of relating to God and others, ways based on grace and truth. These new ways offer more of the abundant life Jesus promised (John 10:10). Our old ways of life might have been more comfortable, but they were often based on fear or habit, rather than faith in God and His ways. Yet the fact that new ways are new can be unsettling. Like Abraham, who when he was “called to go to a place he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8), people discover new thoughts, feelings, and other parts of themselves. They don’t know much about them at first, so inevitably will make mistakes and errors. Growth requires risks and mistakes. God’s grace and the comfort of the body of believers will help you to hold up and bear the weight of those risks and failures so you may learn many things from them.