6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7
I recently saw a meme that best describes the spiritual growth of many Christians today.
Yup, some of you may feel the same way. Joyful when you became a Christian, yet disheartened and disheveled at your spiritual state at the moment.
There are Christians that were so excited when they were first converted. They brimmed with joy knowing that Christ loved them and died for them. It amazed them that God, almighty God, would stoop down and have a relationship with little you. For sure this brought you joy. The kind of joy that led you to always talk about Christ to others. The kind of joy that led you to always commune with God in prayer and to read the Bible. For sure it was the kind of that joy that made you eager to listen to His Word preached and to walk in obedience.
Yet over time, you find it difficult to maintain that spiritual high. You lose interest in drawing near to the Lord. Your prayer time plateaus, you seldom read the Bible. You attend church faithfully (on time even), but the way you live from Monday to Friday, your speech, your attitude is becoming indistinguishable to that of an unbeliever.
You find yourself struggling mightily with sanctification.
Why? Over the course of your spiritual growth, some things are happening in your life that you did not expect and causing you to return to your old, sinful, drifted ways. What’s worse, these things are causing you to be disheartened with the Lord and your walk with Him:
Trials – Trials are difficult. They come suddenly, unannounced, and throws a wrench to your best laid plans. There are many who while seeking and serving the Lord go home and find out that their family is in turmoil, that their health is compromised, that their wallets have no more money and it deeply affects their spiritual walk. Trials take your mind off from God and His commands and shifts it towards you and your situation. It is the reason why worrying often happens even to the best of us. Like Peter walking on water with the big waves coming at him, we tend to shift our gaze from Christ to our crisis when it comes. The result: worry, then doubt, and ultimately unbelief.
Temptations – There are many who think little about temptation while experiencing spiritual high after a powerful Sunday morning preaching. Yet, when they are alone and no one is looking, temptation is as powerful as the flickering candle is towards the bumbling moth. No matter how many times they have heard preaching on resisting temptation, or been hurt, or ashamed of their fall, many Christians find themselves giving in over and over again to same temptations. The porn addict talks about the importance of sexual purity among his churchmates, while hiding his porn-addiction struggles with this while he holds his smartphone in the dark of the night. The alcoholic wants to let go of his drinking ways, but keeps his San Mig Lights at his refrigerator ready to be opened in times of partying or problems. The lazy and procrastinator promises to do better during the work week, but then ends up binge-watching the latest K-drama offering of Netflix. The outcome of giving in to persistent temptations: hope that turns to despair.
Despair on being sanctified. Despair on being victorious over their sin.
Trauma – This I believe, is becoming the professed root cause of a Christian’s lack of progress in spiritual growth. There are those who believe that they can’t grow spiritually because they have a past trauma. Someone they trusted deeply hurt them in the past. It could be a boyfriend who cheated on her. It could be the father who worked abroad and never was there for him. It could be the mother who only spoke harsh words all the time, calling her daughter walang kwenta! hindi marunong! It could also be a trusted uncle who betrayed their trust by sexually abusing them when they were in their early teens.
This, experts say, result in scars in people’s hearts that lasts for decades even while they are all grown up. How does this affect our spiritual growth? Some believe that they can never forgive those who hurt them. The damage was too much that it no matter how much the Christian wants to forgive, she just can’t. Some also believe that their sins, addictions, and bitterness as their way of coping with the painful trauma that they experienced.
What is painful to hear is that many Christians genuinely want to grow spiritually. If you are reading this, and you are a Christian, you know deep in you that you do want to grow spiritually – to be free from sin, misery, and bitterness.
Yet, when faced with trials, temptations, and trauma – many get discouraged with spiritual growth. I know I did too. I had sins in my life that went on, prompting me to ask, “God, will you ever deliver me from my sin?”
Have you asked that question before? If yes, have you ever felt that you can never change, never grow? Here’s the good news for you. When it comes to your spiritual growth, the question to answer is not “am I willing and able to grow?” The question to answer is, “is God willing and able?”
The good news is He is both willing and able, and this makes all the difference for your spiritual growth.
God is willing
God desires us to grow spiritually. In fact, He desires it more than we could ever desire it. He wants to bring us out of our sins into holiness. He wants us to step out of darkness into the light. He wants us to live out an abundant, new life in His Son, Jesus Christ. How does He carry out His desire?
Colossians is written as an expression of this desire. In this letter in chapter 2, we hear these commands God has given to every Christian:
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7
He has meant for you to walk in Him – when does He want you to walk in him? When you can walk? When you have the strong willpower to let go of your pet sins? No, he wants you to walk in him as you received Christ Jesus the Lord. It’s Christ Jesus the Lord who enables you to walk. It is Christ in You who empowers you to overcome the hurdles to your spiritual growth.
He wants you to be rooted, built up, and established in Him – yup, we are all rooted in something. Some of us are deeply rooted in our pornography. Some are deeply rooted in bitterness. Some are deeply rooted in anxiety, in envy, and in anger. As a result we find our lives built up over time in these things. These sins cloud our decisions, our judgment. At the end, it establishes us deeper and deeper in despair. Those who are rooted in bitterness are still bitter. Those angry are still angry. Those lustful are still lustful. Yet look at what He wants for you. He wants you to be rooted and built up in Him. This means (1) its possible to be rooted away from your sins and into Him, and (2) He can make it happen.
He wills for you to grow in knowledge and thanksgiving – Just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Is there a relationship with being taught and being thankful? I believe there is. Knowledge is a form of wealth. When you know how to change the oil in your car, you are better off than those who do not. When you know how to cook, you are better off than those who do not. When God reveals Himself – His attributes, His acts, His affections – to you, you are better off than those who do not receive such revelation. Why?
When you know who God is and what He is doing in your life, you will find how abundantly He bestows His grace upon you. You will find out that your every experience, every trial, every pain, and every blessing God has given you is Him being the potter, shaping you as a vessel for His good purposes. When you know of God’s omnipresence, it changes the way you feel when you are alone at the cabin of your ship for 7 months straight in the sea. When you know of God’s holiness, it changes how you see and practice your pet sins in the middle of the night. When you know about God’s salvation, it changes the words that you want to speak out to your friends and loved ones. When you see how knowing Him changes you, it grows your thankful, thankful heart.
He wants you to know Him. When you do, you will be grateful.
So, let’s summarized quickly. Listen to what He is saying to you in His commands:
- He is not saying, stay where you are. He wants you to walk in Him.
- He is not letting you be rooted and built up in your sins. He wants you to be rooted and built up in Him.
- He doesn’t want you to be established in your fallenness. He desires that you be established in the faith.
- He doesn’t want you to remain in ignorance, He wants you to be taught and to hold firm to His teaching.
- He doesn’t plan for you to abound in despair, but to abound in thanksgiving.
Yet, you might say, “it’s good and encouraging that God wants that for me. Yet, even if He wants me to change, to grow, I just told you, I can’t! I’ve tried, and I’ve tried to repent of my sins, be better. Yet I keep falling into my old habits again. How can spiritual growth be a reality in my life?”
Yes, you are right. It’s not enough to know that God is willing for you to grow. Another important question to answer is, how can you grow? How can you move out of despair into devotion?
We will answer it in Part 2. Stay tuned.