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PROGRAM D-8058
When you were growing up, did your parents measure your height at different ages and make a mark on the closet door or some other place to show how you were growing? They would say something like, “You’re really growing up fast!”—and that made you feel good. Ask yourself this question: If God measured your spiritual growth, would he see progress—that you’re growing up to be a “big girl”—or boy—for Jesus?
We need to become intentional about growing spiritually, making sure we’re doing what we need to do to be a “big girl” for Jesus. So, how do we grow?
First, we grow through the Word. There are no short cuts here. There is no microwave Christianity. You can’t bake this potato in five minutes!
If I asked you how many true, born-again believers read their Bibles every day, what percentage would you guess do so? The latest research says that number is 11%. Just 11% of true believers read their Bible every day! In fact, what their research showed was that the one correlating factor that was true in the life of those who truly were committed disciples of Jesus Christ—totally serious, all-out for Jesus—the one thing that was true of them all was that they read their Bible every day.
If you want to grow up in Christ, you need to read your Bible every day. It won’t just happen. You must be intentional about it. You need a time and place that is reserved for you and Jesus, and you need a structured way to read your Bible—all parts of it.
You can come up with any number of reasons why you can’t do this, but they are all excuses, not reasons. I believe that for the most part, we do what we really want to do. So, if you’re not reading your Bible every day, maybe the first thing you need to do is pray that God will make you want to grow through his Word, or at least show you why you don’t have a hunger and thirst to know him better through his Word.
Sadly, busyness is our number one excuse, and it just doesn’t hold water! The truth is, we do what we really want to do.