Personal Growth
I was challenged in a meeting recently where missionary Tyler Masters shared some things about personal growth. Tyler and his dear wife Gretchen will be leaving soon for Spain. Please keep them in your prayers. As he challenged me about my personal growth, so I would like to do the same to you.
To grow, you have to be intentional. If you don’t have a plan for personal growth, then don’t expect to grow. People have often said that practice makes perfect, that is not true. Ever go golfing? Guys who go every week for years still are making the same fundamental mistakes they made when they first started. Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. No matter what work you do or where you do it, your greatest challenge is you. Let God work on who you are before He works on what you do.
In II Timothy 1:6 states, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. God wants you to stir up the gift that he has place inside you. This takes on the thought of stirring up a fire, to revive a fire, to kindle up. If you do not stir up a fire, it will die and go out. Unfortunately that is what has happened to many men. The fire has gone out. They are no longer a burning inferno for God. They have stopped maturing and growing. One man said that, “Gifting without growth leads to ineffectiveness. Can you see growth in your own life? Can others? Are you adding to your faith? Is there a dissatisfaction inside you because you know you are not growing like you should or used to?
Be careful of “wet wood”. Many things out there today will make you smoke but not burn. Be careful of childish, lite, superficial, silly podcasts, books and sermons. Put some cured oak on your soul and you should burn for quite a while! May there be substance to your praying, preaching and serving.
May we take Paul’s admonition seriously, that we too, would stir up the gift that is within us!
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