The Secret to Spiritual Growth…

Lose your grip…

How do we really get to know God. Do we study the Bible in great detail, to unlock the meaning of every word in its original language and context? The apostle Paul instructed Timothy “Study to show yourselves approved” (2 Timothy 2:15), while Solomon said “of the reading of many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Where is the balance? What is the secret to going beyond head knowledge to true spiritual understanding?

Did you ever notice how so many of God’s ways are completely opposite of conventional thinking?

• To become great you must be a servant… (Matthew 20:26)
• The last shall be first and the first shall be last … (Matthew 20:16)
• In order to have life you must die… (John 12:24)
• To enter the Kingdom you must become like a child… (Matthew 18:3)
• God has hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes… (Matthew 11:25)

Perhaps the best way to bring understanding is to do what Jesus would do, and give you a parable…

The Kingdom of God is like a journey up a mountain, with Jesus as our Guide. At the top we know that we will be able to see for miles, a clear perspective from God’s point of view, but we haven’t reached that point yet.

Along the way there are many paths to the right or the left that look like they would be easy going, only our Guide has insisted that we not take any of these paths, that the only route that will reach our destination is to go straight up.

So we climb with our Guide from cliff to ledge, but as we go the way becomes increasingly harder until we find ourselves dangling from an overhang, with nothing beneath our feet, and only the strength of our grip above preventing us from falling, and we can even feel that grip slipping as our arms grow tired from hanging on…

Then, as we loose our hold completely and face the inevitable fall, we discover that our Guide’s hands are reaching down from above, that they are wrapped around our wrists, and that even as our grip was growing weaker His hold was becoming stronger, and we realize that during the entire climb we never felt like we were more safe from falling than at this very moment…

Then our Guide lifts us up over the edge, and we are standing on a solid ledge with a larger view than we have ever seen before, and our eyes are opened.

Did you ever wonder what this scripture meant?

2 Corinthians 12:9 - But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (NIV)

Now you know. The key to achieving the next spiritual level is not study or increased head knowledge, it is losing your grip and letting Christ’s strength lift you over the next ledge.


James :)