Growth in grace

Am I more like Jesus now than I was a year ago?

If I continue on the current path and trajectory will I be more like Jesus in a year than I am now?

Do the people closest to me think that I am anything like Jesus?

These are hard questions for me to consider. As a matter of fact I’m not sure I want to spend much time thinking about them because I fear perhaps I am stuck in a rut in my spiritual life.

I want to be more like Jesus, and yet sometimes I think I just keep defaulting to certain rote behaviors, not to intentionally be selfish but just because I am busy and I have not intentionally pursued growth in grace nor sought to change my habits, attitudes and behaviors to more closely match Jesus’.

I know of course that by myself I can’t change myself, but I also know that God won’t change me without my cooperation and participation with His plan.

If I spend time with God in prayer and the Word and even time at church with other believers in worship but I don’t act any differently in the rest of my life, I realize that I am grieving the Spirit of God and treating flippantly the blood of Jesus which He shed for me.

So my prayer for you and me both, is that we will sit a while with the Lord and ask Him with David to “search me and know me and see if there is any wicked or anxious way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (see Psalm 139)

And then whatever God shows us, no matter how painful, let us come under His care so that He can bind up our wounds, heal our brokenness and change us from the inside out.