Spiritual progress

Next month marks my 8th year since I got born again. However, after doing a critical analysis, I feel like I haven’t really gotten to where I should be. I feel that if I had made spiritual goals just like I make financial and life goals and work towards them, I would be at a higher level spiritually that I am right now. I say so because I remember when I got born again, I would read my bible and pray but it did not last long. This was because I never had somewhere I really wanted to be. However, the major reason why I believe that I did not progress like I now wish that I should have is because I did not do as God required of me. For a long time, I had held on the wrong things and because of this, I could not progress spiritually.

In Numbers 33:55, God was telling the Israelites that they should drive out all the inhabitants of the land that they were to occupy. He warned them that if they would not drive them out, these inhabitants would become barbs in their eyes and thorns in their side and that, they would cause trouble to them as they live in the land that they were to occupy. This is the same thing that happens and happened to me because I failed to get rid of evil immediately. Many times in our lives, we chose to hold on to what is wrong and ungodly. And just as God warned, these things cause us trouble and hinder our progress in our Christian lives. We desire to grow deeper in the knowledge of God and in relationship with God but these things pull us down.

Spiritual progress is not wholly within our control because we can’t make it on our own, we didn’t save ourselves and therefore we can’t make it unless through the help of the savior. However, we have a very major role to play in it. Apart from read the bible, praying every day and even serving in various ways, God requires us to get rid of any and every evil in our lives. In my everyday life in salvation, God is always working on something different every time. Most of these things are those wrong things and attitudes that are in my life. He is always helping me to get rid of them and I realize that when I let go of them, I am always left better. When one of those wrong things is gone; He always gets working on another. This causes me to progress spiritual and even in my relations with Him and other people. However, I have come to realize that this progress occurs when I chose to corporate with God and allow Him to work on me.

We need to do what God requires of us in order to grow. When God asked the Israelites to get rid of the inhabitants of the land, He further gave them boundaries. He knew that the Israelites would need boundaries that would limit their interaction with those others nations. He knew that unless they had these boundaries, they would easily mix with the people that He did not want them to mix with (Numbers 34:1-2). The same thing applies to us in our Christian lives. God expects us to get rid of every evil that may hinder our progress. Moreover, He expects us to set boundaries in our lives that will helps us to keep from going back to evil thus cause us not to progress or would cause us to progress at a low pace than we expect or that He expects of us.
The word of God tells us what we should do or not do. Although salvation is not about dos and don’ts but about grace, we need to realize that these dos and don’ts help us to set boundaries and get rid of evil in our lives. Example of the dos and don’ts is when the word warns us against being unequally yoked with unbelievers or walking in the ways of the sinners or against bad company because it ruins good morals. Unless we follow these things, we often find ourselves falling and thus dragging in our spiritual progress.

Many times in the past I failed to keep away from evil and kept falling because apart from not setting the boundaries, I failed to realize that God has given me the grace to say no to all forms of ungodly. However, I later realized that this grace is always very sufficient in all times and especially when the spirit and the flesh are in conflict. In these times, we need to understand that though we face such trials, we have power over them because God can never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability. Overcoming these trails, getting rid of evil as and when God requires of us and setting boundaries in our lives along side reading the word, praying, fellowship and even serving help us to progress spiritually effectively.
God bless you!