How do you grow in your faith? Any number of things probably just came to mind. I was recently talking with a good friend who was visiting from out of town. He shared with me that for Lent this year he’s giving up listening to his pastor’s sermons. (WHAT? Are they really that bad? If so, why are you going to that church!?) Naturally that bothered me. There’s got red flags all over that. The natural follow-up question is… how are you going to grow as a follower of Christ? Isn’t that our main source of growth? I just gotta tell you, as a preacher, that’s a heavy weight to bear! The fact is this, it doesn’t matter who your pastor is nor how dynamic of a speaker he may be… if you are relying solely on his message from Sunday morning for spiritual growth, then your growth will be minimal (especially if your pastor’s growth is minimal!). You need to be reading your Bible throughout the week. You need to be hanging out with other followers of Christ. There’s one area that you may not realize, though. When it comes to growing in your faith the fact is this…
If you’re not sharing your faith… you’re not growing in your faith!
That’s right. As you share your faith more and more, your own personal faith grows. It makes sense when you consider the #1 reason why Christians do not share their faith. The #1 reason we don’t share our faith is because we have not truly allowed the love of Christ to penetrate our own hearts. Yeah, we accepted Christ. Yeah, we repented of our sins. You might have gotten dunked under water and was baptized. But those were just the motions and we’ve never truly allowed the love and the grace and the mercy of Christ to change who we are. The result is we don’t feel the urgency to share with those we know who are lost because it’s never been urgent to us. It’s not real.
So, let me ask you a question. If you were to truly allow Christ to penetrate your heart, would your life look any differently? I know one thing. I know your personal savior would become your public savior! See, for some reason in the church we have gotten this perception that my faith is a private issue between God and me. Why would we ever think that?
Jesus died on the cross PUBLICLY! Take a stroll through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and you’ll find that every time Jesus called someone to him, he did it in PUBLIC! Our faith might be a personal issue… but it’s not a private issue. Jesus is not your personal savior. The Bible says that Jesus died “once and for all.” One time… for all people… for all sins.
One thing I tell folks over and over again is this… You alone are responsible for your own spiritual growth. And let me tell you something, if you want to jump leaps and bounds in your faith… share it!
Be Blessed, Pastor Scott