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How can you keep growing, emotionally, mentally and spiritually? Once you are born again by faith in Jesus Christ, you then begin a journey that continues until your last day on earth. And in that journey you are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And here’s the amazing thing: When you are growing spiritually, becoming more like Jesus, you are also growing emotionally and mentally. You’re just getting better in every way!
Spiritual growth is an on-going process, but it must be nurtured and helped. So, what are you doing on a regular basis to make sure you are growing in healthy ways? The most important measure of your growth is to determine if you’re more and more like Jesus. Thinking like him, talking like him, and having a heart like his.
I want to give you some suggestions that could help to stimulate your spiritual growth, and that in turn will make you emotionally and mentally mature as well.
Ask God to help you see yourself the way he sees you.
For years I’ve asked God to help me see other people the way he sees them, and that is a very good prayer. But equally important is to ask God to help you see yourself the way God sees you.
We all have our self-images that have developed over the years, but the fact is, we can be deceived about ourselves. Self-deception is lying to ourselves and believing our lies. The thing is, we don’t realize when we’re lying to ourselves but it happens. Listen to what the Bible says:
Galatians 6:3: If anyone thinks they are something, when they are not, they deceive themselves.
James 1:26: Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
1 John 1:8: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Imagine you are a sculptor. A sculptor looks at a piece of stone and decides how he wants to change it. Then the sculptor goes to work, bit by bit, shaping the stone into a beautiful image. It takes time—it is a gradual transformation, but eventually it becomes what he wants it to be.
Can you see yourself as a piece of stone that is in the process of becoming a work of art—God’s handiwork? The Bible teaches that God is the potter and we are the clay; he is the sculptor and we are the one being changed by his mighty hand. So, step one to spiritual growth is asking God to help you see yourself as he sees you and then allowing him to chip away until you are made into his image more and more.