Are You Asking the Right Questions?

For many years I had the joy of training women’s leaders to lead others to know and grow in Christ. One thing I always emphasized was that we cannot lead others where we ourselves are not heading.

For the first 10 years of my spiritual life after coming to Jesus for salvation, I stayed a baby Christian. No one taught me what the next steps in my spiritual journey were. I thought I had to just figure out life this side of heaven and then join Jesus once I died. I had no idea I was to seek His purpose for my life and become more and more like Jesus every day.Perhaps this has been your experience.

Or maybe you’ve been growing in Christ for years ever since you accepted Christ. But no matter how long you’ve known and grown in Christ there is still another step He is asking us to take to go deeper in our relationship with Him.

Sometimes we just need to take a blank sheet of paper and answer some questions about where we are in our spiritual development.

So let me ask you some questions that I continually ask myself:

1. Are you spending time in the Word daily? Without being legalistic about this, you must understand the need to know God daily through His Word. No other way will you get the correct perspective of Him and His will for your life. He is our standard for decisions and life, not the world, our co-worker or our best friend. We see in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that God uses His Word to teach, discipline and train us to be complete in Him. It is how He equips us to serve Him through His Word. And because His Word is living and active TODAY (see Hebrews 4:12) we never stop learning no matter how often we read it.

 2. Are you submitting to God’s authority? When I was in a hard place at work for an extended period of time I learned to start each day quoting Psalm 143:8: “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way that I should go for to you I lift up my soul.” No matter what God is teaching you, you must be willing to say “yes” to it. No matter what difficult season or situation you are facing today, you must give it to Him so He can direct you and show you His face in the midst of it. If He has given you a directive, the only response is to obey it. I love something T.W. Hunt said once (and I quote this often!): “When God gives us  a command, we do not need to understand His directive, we need to understand His authority.” He has the right to tell us whatever He wants and our job is to obey.

3. Are you bathing everything in prayer? Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray at ALL times. We have an enemy that seeks to direct our lives. We must go to the Lord in prayer to ask His protection and direction. We shouldn’t plan then pray. We are to pray then plan as He directs. Why ask God to bless something you have chosen or accomplished? You need to get on His page not ask Him to join you on yours. Pray for clarity, then act on what He tells you.

4. Are you becoming more like Him daily? In 1 Peter 2:2-3 we read about spiritual milk that we are to crave as a newborn craves his mother’s milk. It causes us to grow strong spiritually. Paul complemented the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 for their faith that was flourishing and their love for the body of Christ that was increasing. How’s your spiritual growth today compared to 5 years ago? A year ago? A month ago?  Sometimes we get mountain top experiences that take us deeper obviously. Other times growth is hard to see since it’s more often than not just small steps one after the other so look back in time and see if anything is more like Christ. But over time if there is no change at all…if you aren’t looking more like Jesus today than in the past, perhaps you need to ask God why and seek a daily walk with Him.

I became a Christian as a preteen but never learned to grow as a disciple until I was a married young woman in my early 20’s. It was then a woman spoke into my life challenging me to get into the Word on a daily basis and to spend time alone daily with Jesus. She said it would change my life and slowly, one day at a time, it has and continues to do so. So I challenge you to do that same thing: take some time daily to get alone with God and His Word. Ask Him to direct your day, to show you His will, and to lead you to obey His will. It WILL change your life. And what you learn from Him you can impart to others as you serve and lead them.

Banner Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash