Growth vs. Indifference

2 Peter 3;18, "Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen." (NLT)

Our Wednesday night Discipleship class raised some interesting discussion points. One of those points centered around our need as individual Christians to maintain our passion to grow or to seek maturity in our relationship with Christ. The title for this post was born out of that lesson and the follow up discussion. Do I continue to have a desire to grow or have I leveled off into a pattern of indifference toward my passion to know Jesus in a deeper manner?

The fleshly side of me initially rejects such an idea because I want to maintain a super-inflated opinion of my relationship with Christ. I don't have any trouble identifying that characteristic in my fellow believers but I shun or reject the opportunity to take that inventory of my life. But the inspiration of the Spirit written from the pen of the Apostle Peter talks about the need to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." How will I respond to that challenge is the question that I believe that each of us must answer.

It is very easy to find a lot of reasons (better known as excuses) to explain my stagnation or indifference. We can call it a "season of life" that I am going through. We can call it a "dry"spell in my life. We can say that I am in a "spiritual battle" at this point in my life. We can say "Don't worry I have got this under control and trust me I am not going to backslide." Each of us have heard and in many cases shared many of these above mentioned reasons but they still do not excuse us from not having a passion to grow in our relationship with Christ. 

I recently read these statements that were written by Rick Warren. "This will really shock you: Sometimes I don’t feel like praying or reading my Bible. But I do it. I’ve found that if the only time I pray is when I feel like it, the devil makes sure I never feel like it. If the only time I read my Bible is when I feel like it, the devil makes sure I never feel like it. Maturity is when you live your life by your commitments, not by your feelings." 

Have you ever felt that way? How did you respond to those feelings/emotions? Did you follow your desires or did you follow your commitments to follow Christ? Our walk with Christ will require more than simply having an emotional response to the presence of Christ in our lives. Our walk with Christ will require a life-long commitment to the ongoing development and maturing of our relationship with Christ. I believe the spiritual regimen of commitment is a challenge to the modern day church. 

But I believe the success of our journey with Christ will depend on our decision to commit our lives to Christ and to follow Him to the best of our ability.