Our Responsibility to Grow in Christ

Isaiah 61:7(NIV)

“Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.  And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.”

Carolyn was newly divorced with three children and a mortgage she could barely afford. Her husband abandoned her for another woman. They were a well-known couple with deep ties to their faith community, and she aspired to become a minister one day. The shame she felt became heavier when she discovered that many of their friends and acquaintances knew about his affair long before she did. The betrayal was overwhelming. She lost weight and her hair thinned from the anxiety and sadness of it all. She contemplated suicide more than a few times but didn’t go through with it because she couldn’t stomach the thought of abandoning her children like her husband had done a year earlier. 

Her husband had been a good provider. He was very handy and knew a little about a lot of things. He took care of anything that was broken around their home, but he wasn’t affectionate and had been ‘ol school’ when it came to public shows of affection or talking about his feelings. She was shocked when she heard that he and the woman he had an affair with were holding hands and canoodling in public. Carolyn was bewildered by this. Even after a year, she was still dealing with so many emotions and wanted to disappear, but she was also discovering something else about herself. If her husband hadn’t asked her for a divorce, she would never have thought about it.

For a very long time, many people have thought that God causes their hardships and troubles. They have believed that He punishes in order to test us, and that He wants us to suffer. Some people believe this way because this is what they were taught. Our first priority should be to always go to God’s Word, because there He tells us exactly who He is and what He does. He would never leave His truth to speculation, assumptions, or to the opinions of others. Instead, He has made every sane and intelligent person responsible for seeking Him first and for studying His Word so that we can know the truth. He tells us in 2Timothy 2:15(NKJV), “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Carolyn has questioned her faith many times since her husband filed for divorce. She thought her belief in God was rock solid. She didn’t see a need, so for many years, she hadn’t altered or increased the spiritual practices she’d had in place. For a very long time, she wanted to run a ministry for abused women. Her mother had been in an abusive relationship before she married Carolyn’s father, but Carolyn believed her own childhood had been a happy one. Even as an adult, she had not experienced anything as painful as her broken marriage. It hadn’t occurred to her that she could be so deeply cut by the pain of betrayal. She hadn’t thought about what it means to be strong in the Lord even when you feel like mush on the inside. Carolyn hadn’t learned to trust God through tough obstacles, and this is absolutely a must for strong believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Our Heavenly Father is a great big wonderful God! He wants to have an intimate relationship with us, and He wants our knowledge of Him and His Word to increase as we grow in the example of Christ. We can never become comfortable in where we are in our knowledge of God in Christ, and we can’t remain at the same level of spiritual growth year after year. Through the Apostle Paul, God tells us in Philippians 1:9(NLT), “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.” This is what He wants us to strive for, to continue growing more in knowledge and understanding about Him.

God will cause all things to work together for our good, even when things appear dark. He will replace all the things we’ve lost through tribulation and trouble, but we must not waver in faith. He wants us to have everlasting joy, but we have a responsibility to grow in Christ as well. Like Carolyn, many of us don’t realize our lack of spiritual growth until something happens to knock us off our feet. When this happens, instead of asking God, “WHY?”, we need to change our priorities, put our relationship with Him first, and seek Him like never before.

Life is a very dynamic instrument, and it will not slow down and wait for us to catch up. God doesn’t cause the trouble in our lives, the devil does. And this is why God commands us in Ephesians 6:10 to be strong in Him and in the power of His might. Faith requires us to know the Word of God, because God equips us through His truth. Ephesians 6:11(NKJV) warns, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” We can trust that we will be spiritually strong against whatever the enemy throws our way when we are increasing in faith. We will stay poised to hear God’s voice, and we can move strategically to His directives when we’re committed to nurture our relationship with Him by increasing our prayer life and studying His Word more diligently. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

“Our Responsibility to Grow in Christ”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.