Grwo your faith at Hope College Australia
Obviously, our Christian growth can move at various speeds, and we tend to have a kind of ebb and flow. Sometimes we're moving ahead in leaps and bounds and other times at a snail's pace. When it's moving in such a laboriously slow fashion, we may think that it has become utterly stagnant. Again, if there is no evidence of growth whatsoever then I would say it's time to examine our souls and our hearts to see if we're in Christ at all because, where the spirit of Christ indwells a person, He will not permit total stagnation.
If we want to increase the pace of Christian growth, I think there are some important practical keys we need to plug in. Christian growth, biblically, is usually described in terms of discipleship. To be a disciple of Jesus means to be a learner in the school of Christ. That doesn't mean simply heaping up intellectual data or head knowledge, so to speak, but coming to an understanding of what it is that pleases God and what it is that pleases Christ. It means learning how to imitate Him in our different ways of walking before Him.
The word discipleship is very close to the English word discipline. To grow requires the achievement of spiritual discipline. How do you get it? When we are trying to progress in any area, so many times that involves discipline—whether it's mastery of piano technique, an athletic endeavor, or learning in a school, college or at University. We have to understand that discipline doesn't happen by magic. The best way I know of becoming disciplined is by first learning patterns of discipline under somebody else's tutelage. If you're having trouble growing, get yourself as fast as you can into a Connect group where you are under the discipline of a spiritual leader, or even Hope College Australia, where as part of a team, you are learning the skills of personal growth together.
