Introduction:

This post is the beginning of a series of posts that is titled: “Between the Beginning and the End”.  In this series, I will discuss the spiritual growth process which begins when we first put our trust in Jesus as our personal savior, and ends when we depart this life. The focus of this series is the importance of understanding what should be going on in our lives “between the beginning and the end” of this spiritual journey. Part I: “Do We Know What God Requires of Us?” identifies the need to examine our spiritual condition to see whether or not we match up with what God expects of us; Part II: “What is Spiritual Growth?” discusses the true meaning of spiritual growth; Part III: “The ‘Whys’ of Spiritual Growth”, explains the reason for spiritual growth and the benefits of it; and, Part IV: “How Do We Grow Spiritually?” explores things we could do and things we must do to grow spiritually.

Some main parts of the series will be divided into subheadings and posted as Parts A and B; depending on the length of the discussion. (For example: Part IV, A and Part IV, B). It is my intent not to overwhelm you with information.  Postings will be spaced at a rate that will allow time for reflecting on and processing the information that has been presented. At the end of each post, there will be some “Points for {bd:Consideration} and {bd:Meditation}”.

We will now begin with Part I.

 

Part I: Do You Know What God Requires of Us?

What is it that God requires of us? In other words, what should we do to show our love for Him? This question has been asked repeatedly throughout the ages and continues to be asked even today. The answer to this question is important to us because the Scripture teaches us that man has an intuitive knowledge of God (Romans 1:19); but “more particularly, there is a spiritual {bd:endowment} for the believer by means of which he enters into very real and very precious fellowship with God” (Romans 8:15) (Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p 19). This knowledge of God and fellowship with Him makes us aware of His goodness and His greatness toward us; and, as with any human relationship, we realize that a relationship is reciprocal (two-sided). We have a natural inclination to want to give back to God something for His mercy and kindness toward us. So man continues to ask: “What can we give you to show that we love and appreciate you and your goodness?—what do you require of us?”

The people of Judah (the Southern Kingdom in the Israelites’ Promised Land) asked the question and offered some possible answers to it, in the book of Micah (Micah 6:6-7). The problem with their proposed answers was that they wanted to give back to Him some of the “things” He had given to them. They failed to realize that God was not interested in “things”. It is evident in the Scripture that He had already told them what He wanted from them (Micah 6:8) but, for some reason, the answer did not seem to register with them. He told them that He required that they “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with their God”.

Even though the question has been answered, we continue to ask the same question today. It seems that either we forget the answer to the question, or maybe we hope for a different answer. We offer the confession of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and announce our belief in an afterlife; we believe in the new Heaven and the new earth and we believe in Jesus’ reign over them; we know, that through Jesus, we are saved from the consequences of sin; and we believe He will save us when we depart from this world. In spite of all we know and believe, our souls are still not satisfied—something is still lacking. We continue to ask: What is it? What must we do to get the peace that comes with knowing that we are walking favorably before the Lord?

Like the people of Judah in the book of Micah, we try many different things to satisfy that void. Some believe we must join a church and maybe attend regularly—or not; some believe as long as we keep our name on the church membership roll by sending in our offerings, we will be okay; some believe if we just join some charitable organization and donate time and/or money we will be fine; some believe if we just don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t commit adultery /fornication (maybe), we will be all right; and some feel that the only thing we need to do is sit around and wait for the end to come—just don’t let Him catch you sleeping or you might miss Him..

All of these offerings and changes in behavior have merit; but they, in themselves, do not bring the satisfaction for which we are looking. Maybe we need to examine the answer to that question a little more closely; maybe we do not fully understand what the answer to that question means in terms of how to apply it in our daily lives. If we would look more closely at what it means to “do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God”, we would see that this answer does not simply suggest that we perform certain acts—even though those acts are important—but it suggests that we have a sincere change of heart and a change in attitude as it relates to how we interact with God, and with one another.

To “act justly” means to live with a sense of right and wrong, and to be fair toward others in our judgment and actions toward them; to “love mercy” means that we should be kind, forgiving, and have compassion for others—even those who could be treated harshly (love even your enemies); to “walk humbly with God” means that we should live consciously under the eye of God and refer all our actions to Him for His approval. This means whatever we do must be done from the heart, or it has no true spiritual value.

Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25-28 when He accused them of being hypocrites for trying to appear before others as righteous people, but their hearts were unclean. He told them that they should not just clean the outside of the cup and leave the inside dirty, but they should “first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:26). Jesus also expressed the importance of approaching God with sincerity, when He had a discussion with the Samaritan lady about the “proper place for worshiping God”—on the mountain or in Jerusalem. He explained to her that she was talking about something she really did not understand. He explained to her that the place of worship was not important; it was the “how” of worship that was important—in spirit and in truth; “…for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” (John 4:23)

So, for us to satisfy our desire to know and please God, we must focus our attention on our spiritual condition, and begin a process called “Spiritual Growth”. This is the process in which we should be involved, from the beginning of our spiritual journey to the end of this life.

 

Points for Consideration and Meditation:

• Consider this: God requires us to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God”.
• Meditate on this: What is my spiritual condition as it relates to what God requires of me?