A Spiritual Growth Plan

Sometimes I think I drive my husband crazy. That’s because I’m always thinking down the road, making plans for the next meal, the next weekend, the next vacation. He thinks I worry too much about the future.

Maybe he’s right. But there is a need for planning in our lives, including our spiritual lives. After all, as the famous quotation goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

For many, the idea of a spiritual growth plan might seem a bit over the top, too fanatical. Is it?

If we are called into relationship with Christ, to grow closer to God in ever-deepening fellowship with Him, then if follows that we need to be making serious, disciplined, and regular efforts to do so.

We know that any close relationship takes time and work, so why would our relationship with God be any different?

I’ve heard many people say they just don’t want to get that involved with their faith, that they are satisfied with the faith they have. But that is kind of like going over to someone’s house and staying in the foyer. Or worse, refusing to go farther than the front porch. What would your neighbors think if they invited you to dinner and you did that? What does God think of us when we don’t bother to seek to know Him more?

God didn’t intend for us to remain spiritual babies; it’s clear we need to keep growing and maturing. The spiritual growth plan outlined in this week’s reading is a good place to start.

The problem with kind of exercise is that it’s easy to get excited and all motivated and come up with a long list of goals. Then a few weeks, days or hours later reality sets in. I’ve written many a plan only to realize while it would be great to achieve all those goals, it’s not going to happen.

The first time I did the Spiritual Growth Plan in DbD, I was overwhelmed by it. So what I do now is to write my plans is list all my goals. Then I pick 3 to start with. Then I try to consider the rest “nice to do” and focus on the others. If I have success with those I started with, then I can add another.

The plan is just a plan, to keep me moving forward, not a taskmaster to rule my life. God may have other plans for me, and I need to leave some room for those.