HOW DO WE GROW SPIRITUALLY?

Scripture is growth food. Without it, we do not grow:

• Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation. ‭‭(1 Peter‬ ‭2:1-2‬ ‭ASV‬)

However, many of us have difficulty meditating on the Word day and night as we ought (Psalm 1; Joshua 1:8). Even in this, we have to rely upon the Lord.

How does He get us to abide in His Word? As He did with Israel! He humbles us, showing us that we cannot depend on our own understanding or strength:

• “And thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live.” ‭‭(Deuteronomy‬ ‭8:2-3‬)

He humbles us to show us that we must abide by His every Word. We cannot discard or reject any of it. It has to reign over all of our thoughts and actions (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

What happens when we are humbled? We learn to distrust in ourselves as Paul needed to learn:

• For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life: yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead. ‭‭(2 Corinthians‬ ‭1:8-9‬)

The lessons of God can only be learned in the fire (2 Corinthians 4:10-11). This fire must burn away the dross of self-confidence so that we can learn to trust in God alone through His Word.