For the past ten years, I’ve been discipling a good friend. Although she’s been saved for more than twenty years and has sat under the teaching of God’s word that entire time, she has allowed her spiritual growth to be delayed by circumstances. As a result, she’s still young in the Lord. So she is always asking the kind of questions that a baby Christian might ask.
One day she said to me, “You are such a good teacher.”
I replied, “A good teacher starts out as a good student.”
I’ve been saved and learning how to walk with the Lord for 40 years. When I was still a babe in Christ, I developed an incredible hunger for God. I earnestly sought His will for my life. I listened in church and attempted to apply what I learned to my life. I went from constantly talking to myself to constantly talking to God. He’s taught me so much.
But as I reflect on my spiritual infancy, I see how God protected me from false doctrine and guided me into the Truth of His Word. I realize that my early obedience was crucial to my spiritual growth – learning to be faithful to all church services (not just Sunday morning), getting baptized, learning to tithe, etc.
God was as active in my spiritual growth as I was. And I know there were times when my own stubbornness or rebellion stifled my spiritual growth, but I learned of God before I taught another. I was a student before I became a teacher. A pastor once told me that it was my responsibility to disciple the lady I’d led to the Lord – a lady who was perfectly content to remain a spiritual babe. You can’t be a teacher when you have no student, and she had no desire to learn and grow. I couldn’t even get her in church because she feared she’d miss a phone call from her husband who was on the road with my husband.
I’m working as a teacher’s aid at the local school district, and sometimes I work with children who are severely mentally handicapped – 10 and 11 year old students who are still learning the days of the week and their personal information. That is not the norm. Most children that age are learning to write essays, spell difficult words, and multiply double digits. So then, why do most of God’s children have learning disabilities? They haven’t learned to read their Bibles. They haven’t learned to attend Sunday school. They haven’t learned to pray. They haven’t learned to memorize Scripture. They have no desire to obey in the little things, and they don’t understand why their relationship with God is so weak.
If you’ve been saved for 10…20…30 years, and you are still a baby Christian, know that your obedience is crucial to your spiritual growth. If you can’t obey God in the little things, such as faithful church attendance, don’t expect Him to help you in the big things. If you’re not willing to be actively involved in your spiritual growth, don’t expect God to do anything. But you’ll find that the more you do to draw close to God and grow in grace, the more He’ll do to guide you.