“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” Philippians 2.12-13 NLT
“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4,23 NLT
“Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.” 1 Corinthians 14.20 NLT
Day 23 of 40: Spiritual growth requires intentional commitment.
“I must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing.”
There’s a tension in spiritual growth between what I do and what God does. Warren note that I work out and God works in. That’s helpful,,, he has a way with words. Want, decide, try, persist – those are the things that I do. But their all a vain effort unless God changes me from the inside out. The things that I do place me in His hands for shaping and molding… they prepare me for God’s handiwork within me. But they do not produce the change… that’s God’s work. I till, plant and water… but God brings in the harvest.
I really don’t have much to say about this… other than when I have plugged along doing what I was supposed to be doing, making a serious effort to grow, I have seen God at work in my life. When I’ve got off track, God has left me to my own devices… and it hasn’t turned out all that well.
“Fear and trembling” is a good thing. It dives me to place myself before God and cry out… “Change me… from the inside out!”
The Peanut Gallery 