Growth comes with a cost. Ask a decorated athlete, successful businessman, or anyone who excels in what they do. They didn’t become good at what they do by happenstance. The athlete put hours of effort into perfecting their craft. Consistently getting up early and performing workouts that the competition doesn’t dare dream of.
They are doing repetition after repetition until it becomes second nature. But for the Christian what is our “ early morning workout”? It is important before I list these off to know that we can’t perform or work our way into the grace of God. Our motive to grow closer to God should come from a genuine desire to know God. Three ways we can grow closer to God is through understanding His word, getting into the community, and serving others.
This one is really a no-brainer, of course, the more we know about the bible the more we will know about God. We have been told this since Sunday school, but let’s dig a little deeper as to why we need the bible to grow closer to God. One mistake that we can often make is treating the bible like it is a textbook.
This is not an incorrect mindset because we do have books in the bible that are recordings of historical events. But that’s not the bible entirely. It really does limit our understanding of God. We have sections of scripture that portray the emotions of God. One example is in Jeremiah 9:1 “Oh that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.”
This passage is one of many examples of God showing emotions and it is so important to understand this because if we do not, then we have a limited understanding of God. If we have a distorted view of God, how do we grow closer to God? My second point was made around 2000 years ago by the apostle John in the opening statement in his gospel account. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” (John 1:1) John uses the word “logos” which in Greek refers to the written word of God.
What John is getting at is that everything from Genesis 1:1 up until now is about Jesus the Nazarene. John makes an allusion to Genesis 1:1 by stating “in the beginning” sound familiar. It is important to note that the word was with God from the beginning, this is critical to understand because it proves that Jesus was not a created or lesser being like some would say, but Jesus has true equality with God. Lastly, John spells it out for us by saying that this ‘word’ was God.
We truly won’t be able to understand the God we worship unless we know his “logos”, because it reveals who He is and how he interacts with his people. One practical way to have a deeper understanding of the Bible is to learn more about the history and culture during the time of the passage you are reading. Understanding the culture surrounding the passage you are reading really does bring clarity and will answer a lot of your questions.
We have all probably heard the phrase that you can’t do life alone, so simple yet so true. We even see in Acts 2 that the early church put such an emphasis on consistently coming together, sharing a meal, and worshiping together. One mistake we can often make is only thinking of our relationship with God as individuals.
Now this is true, as christians we have a personal relationship with God but it’s not meant to be limited to just a private relationship. It should be shared with other believers. We see that in Hebrews 10: 24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” God’s design for community is to encourage one another,
However, the caveat to that statement is you have to be vulnerable enough to share something that you need to be encouraged in. Another purpose of Christian community is actually to support one another.
We see this in Galatians 6:1-2
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ .”
Paul clearly states that bearing one another’s burdens is not a suggestion but a legitimate command from Jesus, how can we do this if we don’t have community in the first place? This is one of my favorite parts of YWAM Asheville and the DTS we run. It is so much more pleasant to live with a community that has your back and loves you. I would encourage you as the reader to look for this community and be this community to others.
“Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had…” (Philippians 2:1-4)
Let’s attack this passage with a question: what does it look like having the comfort provided by love, fellowship in the spirit, affection, mercy, the same mind, same love, being united in spirit? To answer this lets keep reading going down to verse three.
It looks like treating each other is more important than ourselves and doing nothing out of vain and selfish conceit. What the apostle Paul is teaching the church in Philippi is the heart and the motivation of serving. How does this help us grow as Christians? Because the image of a servant is reflecting the very nature of Jesus.
We see the servant nature in Jesus very clearly when he washes the feet of his disciples, this was the very job of a servant. We see it in Jesus’ teachings as well that serving is a requirement for the kingdom of Heaven.
"Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20: 27-28).
In this passage in Matthew we see Jesus laying out the hierarchy of the kingdom of Heaven. Servants first, not kings or queens. So as christians we must be dutiful in looking for ways to serve.
One way that I learned how to serve was in my YWAM discipleship training school, we would make a fresh vegan Indian meal for the homeless and traveler community. It taught me the value of combining evangelism with serving people because we were able to show the love of Christ along with telling others about his love.