Have you thought about where you and your family will be in your walk with God in five or ten years? If we believe the Bible, then we ought to be motivated to keep on improving our walk. Scripture says that a young Jesus did so: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52 NKJV). The apostle Peter commanded adult Christians to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen (2 Peter 3:18). The apostle Paul commanded Timothy to keep an eye on his progression in the faith. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all (1 Timothy 4:15). Solomon wrote that A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel (Proverbs 1:5). But he also wrote what would happen if we stopped growing: Cease listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge (Proverbs 19:27).
What steps have you put into place to ensure that you stay on the path of growth? It is important to have a plan, a vision, that helps you do something everyday to get to your goal. One can say he wants to go to heaven; however, if there is no daily plan of helping him get to heaven, it's difficult to see how he will get there. If you want to go to the mountains, how do you get there? By using the road signs along the way to guide you. We need daily road signs (markers) to help us reach our heavenly destination.
For example, Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). That was his mission. How did he accomplish it? Ultimately, Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's wrath toward sin, and because of this indescribable gift of love, to as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). But we also see, when we study his life of when he walked on this earth, the daily things he did. He sought one Zaccheus, and from that meeting, salvation came to Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10). On another day, He needed to go through Samaria (John 4:4). As we keep reading, we see it was to talk with a Samaritan woman whom he would meet at a well. That conversation resulted in a whole town believing in Jesus as the Christ. It would be a good study to see what all Jesus did on a daily basis to fulfill his mission of seeking and saving the lost.
Jesus also said, if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch (Matthew 15:14b). If we are to lead others to heaven, and we should be (Hebrews 5:12), we need to know how to get there ourselves. Where are you now, and where are you going? How are you going to get there? What will you do today, tomorrow, and the next day to help you get there? Here's a simple formula I learned from someone that can help you get started: 1) Let God say something to you everyday (Bible study); 2) Say something to God everyday (prayer); 3) Say something for God everyday (sow seed); 4) Do something for God everyday (good works). May God receive the glory and may we humbly grow in Christ and hasten the day of his coming. Brotherly, Jamie
