Growing in Christ

I told you in my introduction blog
that I wanted to share with you my heart for you on this trip. I have been praying and seeking after God,
looking for the right topics and the right words to share. My hope is that what
I share is from Him and is helpful towards your pursuit of Him.

One of things that I believe is
important for each of you, not only as you prepare to venture out on mission,
but as you journey with Christ, is growing daily in Him. “Growing daily in Christ”, that statement
probably carries a host of different meanings for each of you. But what I mean by it is your relational development
with Christ.

I have spent the last 13 years
working in student ministry. Each time that I talk with students about growing
in their relationship with Christ, the feedback that I get revolves around
reading their bible more and praying more.
I think that a relationship is so much more than reading about someone
and talking at them (the way that a lot of us talk with God).

Think of it this way, if I just
read my wife’s history everyday and then left her a voice mail message of all
the things that I needed from her and I was thankful for about her, how well do
you think our relationship would be growing?
I can tell you it wouldn’t. My
wife wants to talk about our histories, our relationship, and what is happening
in our days. She wants to hear about my
needs and about the things I appreciate about her, but she also wants to share
with me the things she needs/ wants from me.
She wants to speak things into my life that will build me up and things
that will challenge me. We communicate
back and forth. For our relationship to
grow daily there has to be a giving of ourselves to each other that requires
sacrifice, adjustments, and time.

I think that our relationship with
God is not the same as it is with another human being, but there are a number
of similarities. I don’t want people to get the wrong impression. I am not against reading the bible more or
praying more. I believe that you need to
be spending time reading God’s Word and understanding how He has worked in the
past with His people. However, we need to allow Him to speak through His Word
about how He wants to work with us today.
God’s Word is alive (Hebrews 4:12) ready to breath into us and cut us to
the bone. We must take the time that is
needed to read, listen, and interact with God.

As we pray we also need to take
moments to call upon, listen, and Act
on what we hear from God. Action or
obedience to God is important to our prayer life because if we just hear what
God says and do nothing, then we are like a man who looks in the mirror and
then when he walks away he forgets what he looks like (James 1:22-24). Growing relationships are active.

God desires for us to have a
vibrant and “growing” relationship with Him.
I know that in your applications and in your interviews we asked each of
you about your daily time with God. I
want to challenge you to make this a priority if you haven’t already done
this. I heard it said somewhere that it
takes anywhere from 21-30 days to build a habit. I desire for each of you to lay a strong
foundation now before you launch out into mission. You will be challenged, and your relationship
with God will be stretched. The depth of your relationship will most likely be
rooted in your time spent with Him and what you communicate in that time. Take time in these coming months to go deep.

One way you can do this is by
reading one Proverb a day and praying through it over the next 30 days. If you take the one proverb a day challenge
you can post what you are learning/hearing here.