How We Grow…

I just finished the book, The Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller and here is a paragraph that really got me thinking and to be really honest. . . convicted me.

We habitually and instinctively look to other things besides God and his grace as our justification, hope, significance, and security. We believe the gospel at one level, but at deeper levels we do not. Human approval, professional success, power and influence, family and clan identity –all of these things serve as our heart’s “functional trust” rather than what Christ has done, and as a result we continue to be driven to a great degree by fear, anger, and a lack of self-control. You cannot change such things through mere willpower, through learning Biblical principles and trying to carry them out. We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.

It’s a daily battle for me to renew my mind and find my identity in Christ and not through the things of this world. I need to ground who I am in Christ and be who he has called me to be; not try to fit an unattainable mold of who the fashion magazines and other media says I should be.

I need to be truly “rocked” by the gospel and have the words in red mean something to me. They should bring about change, hope, and peace.

This is how we grow.