Growth Is A Choice.

It is very interesting to figure out how to grow our lives daily.

Think about what it is like this to become a successful business owner. If you want to become a successful businessperson, you can’t just wake up in the morning today and be successful tomorrow. You can’t wake up today and be a millionaire tomorrow. You can’t study business today and be a great businessperson tomorrow. The growth into business success needs a vision, a mission, a strategy, commitment, consistent effort, networks and connections. The hundreds, thousands, millions and even billions come over time.

The same thing applies to our faith.

Faith is built and grown over time because we must learn the patterns, shift our minds, change our attitudes, learn and apply concepts over and over until the principles of our faith are indeed our true nature. Thus time is critical because it helps us become better in our walk as we clarify why we exist and how we must live out our assignment which changes how view ourselves and how we live out our lives.

If a business will not just grow itself, why do I expect my faith to miraculously grow itself?

Christ said that his sheep will be known by their fruit, so if I have no fruit why am I expecting to be identified as one of his? The growth of fruit presupposes that there is a seed that is planted in the ground and dies. After a while, the life within it comes up and the seed gives life to a shoot that grows into a plant or tree that provides a form of fruit for all to see.

Therefore, if I want to grow and produce fruit, I must be willing to die first. I must be willing to die in the required area of growth so that I can grow and often that is what makes life so difficult. Too many of us want a simple life; we want stress-free living and thriving. We would rather float through life than deal with the thinking, strategizing, growing and becoming. We assume that it is possible to be stuck in a corner, doing as little as possible and still become someone great and worthy of the call of our Father in heaven. Alas, it is not possible in God’s scheme of things.

When He said “I will instruct you and teach you in the ways you should go. I will comfort you & watch over you…” (Psalms 32:8) He meant that there was a process to our walk. Colossians 2:6-7 also applies here and it says, “As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding [a]in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone [b]cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

If we are to be rooted and built up in Him, we must choose to be that seed that dies and then gives life, the shoot that battles the dark and pushes out into the light, the plant that braves the scorching sun, the wind, and the rain to stand firm regardless of the weather and battles for its life to be ready to produce fruit. The plant that is pruned and tended then reaches the stage of pollination where another must add to what it has to produce flowers then fruit then food that will be harvested.

Our growth is deliberate and based on a personal process because in the process He will prove us as acceptable and good seed. As in the case with business, let’s stop expecting that God will make our lives smooth sailing and problem-free rather let us understand that God in his wisdom, allows trouble to come our way and bring out of the storm a harvest of peace, grace, inner strength, character and that is critical for the next phase of our lives.

So, the next time you find things a little bit challenging don’t whine or complain, simply call on your ever-present Father and God and ask Him how the place you find yourself fits into his plan for your life, connects you to the grace for your next lever and how it brings Him glory. Then live by the answer he gives.

Design by Akiko Stories

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