Relationships and Spiritual Growth; Growing Closer to God and Others

 So, what does it mean to “get fit” by exercising spiritual muscles?

We have 2 kinds of relationships: Vertical (with God) and horizontal (with people.) If you are born again, you have a relationship with God. If not, you are still His creation. He is working in your heart to lovingly draw you to Him. You may know facts about Him but just not personally. I’ll share at the end how to know Him personally.

A relationship with God means the Holy Spirit is in you. We speak to God in prayer, as I shared. He speaks in numerous ways. Reading the Bible will help you “get fit” in that one. So will worshipping God with & hanging around other believers. Sure, we can have unsaved friends like Sander was before he became a believer 2 years ago. We just need to make sure they aren’t drawing us away from God.

Prayer is another big way to “get fit.” It also helps our relationships with others. As we pray for them, we should pray God helps us be a blessing to them. How have you blessed those in your family? Even things like saying “please” and “thank you” bless others. Prayer should help us to become more like Jesus, too, as we draw closer to Him & grow the Fruit of the Spirit. Giving, too – not just money but time and talents.

You can still grow if you’re limited in other ways. You may not be able to get to a church like Canton Baptist Temple, for instance. Still, you can listen to it and Cool Kids Ministries stuff online. You can always read your Bible. You don’t have to do word studies like I am right now and thinking how light is a wave and how the colors of a wavelength are like the many unique things God creates and other cool things about light. Just thinking about John 3:16 and realizing our name is in that verse is a great start.

Think about that. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Put your name in place of “whosoever.” “If ‘Phayzon believeth…” or “If Addy or Emmy” or any who might not have made a heart/mind decision to call on Jesus to save them. Pray for Anabelle, a 9O who will be coming with her friend this Thursday to club at my house. She said one Sunday at their home church she was “good.” She’s a good kid. Her mom quoted “the heart is deceitfully wicked,” but another way to look at it is “good compared to what?”

We all fall sort of God’s perfection. None of us is perfect. So we can’t reach His perfect Heaven on our own. At Camp CHOF (still time to sign up there) once, a 10YO much like her knew the most verses. She was always polite and kind and helpful. Staff figured she knew Jesus. But the last service, she came forward. She said, with a heavy heart, she was a Pharisee. Not the really mean kind. She was most like Nicodemus. She was trusting in her works, while her heart wasn’t always right with others or God.

She trusted Jesus to save her that night. Anyone can pray to trust Jesus right now. If you don’t know for sure if you’ve been born again, you can call on Jesus right now, by praying a simple prayer, believing with your whole heart. It’s not words that save – you get saved from sin when you put your trust in Jesus to save you. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So, if you want to receive His free gift, talk to on Him and pray something like this in your own words:

“Lord Jesus, I (your name) am a sinner. I fall short of your perfection, so I can’t get to your perfect Heaven on my own. But you are God in flesh. You died for my sins and rose from the dead. Lord Jesus, I call on you to please come in my heart, save me from my sin, and make me new inside. I believe your death on the cross was all that was needed to get me to Heaven, so I claim your free gift of salvation. I believe you saved me, not by any good I have done, but all because of your grace. For by grace are we saved through faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”