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Our fourth test question for is:
- Is your faith—your relationship with God—growing?
You know, if your child didn’t grow as expected, you would be concerned. If a ten-year-old looks and acts like a five-year-old, you would be seriously worried, right? How do you think our Heavenly Father feels when we are spiritually way behind the curve? So, can you see areas of growth in your spiritual life? Can you actually identify areas where you are more like Jesus today than this time last year?
Second Corinthians 3:18 makes it clear that we should be in a growing process:
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Ever-increasing—that’s the key word there. A healthy Christ-follower should be able to name areas where they are growing. Take the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23a:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Test yourself in each of these areas: Are you more loving, more joyful? Have you been more faithful, more gentle? Are you exercising more self-control? Further in Galatians 5 we read: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Are you “keeping in step” with God’s Spirit and growing more and more like Jesus? That’s a really good spiritual checkup question.