God's Plan and Promises for His PeopleSample

How will we grow spiritually?

How is it possible to grow spiritually? In much the same way as we grow physically. We need a healthy diet and regular exercise.

Our healthy diet is the spiritual food found in the Bible. We need the minimum daily requirement of God's Word to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord (II Tim. 3:16, 17; Ps. 1:1-3). Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63). By that, He meant that it is the Holy Spirit who gives us spiritual life—not the flesh. Therefore, it is by the Spirit that we grow spiritually. If we are spiritually anemic, we must satisfy our appetite with spiritual things, not with things of the flesh.

But equally necessary for spiritual growth is a good exercise program, and this comes when we are obedient to God and His Word. "But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him" (I John 2:5).

It was the Apostle Paul's observation that we are to exercise ourselves to godliness, for even though bodily exercise profits a little, "godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" I (I Tim. 4:8). Spiritual exercise pays dividends, now and forever.