... and You'll Grow, Grow, Grow...

2 Peter 1:5-8

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am short. Yup... 5'4" standing "straight up, shoulders back, neck stretched, head high".

I'll be honest, there were days when it bothered me. Back in the "good ole days" when all my friends went soaring past me in the growth department. It helped the day I realized it wasn't my fault. It wasn't my tall friends fault either. Nor was it a result of too many cheeseburgers or too much coffee (which Grampy Harrison always said would "stunt my growth"). It was simply a factor beyond my control.

Spiritually, however, growth is a very different story. We ARE in control of our spiritual man. His health. His strength. His resilience. His self-discipline. That's on us.

I've heard from those people who "couldn't grow because of..." whatever. You can provide the "whatever" (or the whoever). The truth is, nobody can MAKE me grow... and nobody can STOP me from growing. I control my thoughts, my heart and my mind. I can offer them to God anytime that I wish. Or I can kick Him out of the process altogether.

In fact, if we're going to live victorious lives, we must become proactive in our warfare. OUR WEAPONS are mighty ONLY THROUGH CHRIST and WE must put those weapons to work casting down imaginations and taking into captivity every thought.

So if we're tired of inching our way along (or backward), let's take a look into the WORD today and let it kickstart some exciting advances in our life. If we stay like this, we've got no one to blame but ourselves.

As the old Sunday School song says:

Read your Bible, pray every day,
Pray every day, pray every day.
Read your Bible, pray every day,
And you’ll grow, grow, grow.

Don’t read your Bible, forget to pray,
Forget to pray, forget to pray.
Don’t read your Bible, forget to pray,
And you’ll shrink, shrink, shrink.