GROWTH,
SPIRITUAL
Such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
The Bible, Hebrews 5:12 kjv
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation …
The Bible, 1 Peter 2:2
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Bible, 2 Peter 3:18
The head grows by taking in but the heart grows by giving out.
Author unknown
Sometimes we must be hurt in order to grow,
We must fail in order to know,
We must lose in order to gain,
Some lessons are learned best only through
pain.
Sometimes our vision clears,
Only after our eyes are washed with tears.
Sometimes we have to be broken,
So we can be tender;
Sick, so we can rest and think better
On things more important than work or fun;
Trip near death, so we can assess how we’ve
ran.
Sometimes we have to suffer lack,
So we can know God’s provisions.
Feel another’s pain,
So we can have a sense of mission.
So take heart, my friend,
If you don’t understand today,
Instead of grumbling, ask God what he
means to say.
In order to learn, you must endure
And learn to see the bigger picture.
In order to grow, you must stand
Look beyond the hurt, to God’s loving
hand
That takes what is good
And gives what is best
And on this blessed thought : rest.
As your anxious heart, with questions : wait.
God’s hand only gives, what his loving
heart dictates.
Author unknown
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
Author unknown
Growth merely for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
Edward Abbey
What you are must always displease you, if you would attain that which you are not.
Augustine of Hippo
If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say, “It is enough,” you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal. Don’t try to stop on the way, or to go back, or to deviate from it.
Augustine of Hippo
Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.
Joan Borysenko
I say that man was meant to grow, not stop.
Robert Browning
If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.
Gelet Burgess
If we’re not growing, we must feel guilty, because we are not fulfilling Christ’s command.
Evan Burrows, referring to the Salvation Army
Don’t go through life, grow through life.
Eric Butterworth
Love not what you are, but what you may become.
Miguel de Cervantes
He who stops being better stops being good.
Oliver Cromwell
Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.
Anthony J. D’Angelo
The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.
George Eliot
There is nothing that is more dangerous to your own salvation, more unworthy of God and more harmful to your own happiness than that you should be content to remain as you are.
F. Fénelon
Nothing marks so much the solid advancement of a soul, as the view of one’s wretchedness without anxiety and without discouragement.
F. Fénelon
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everybody wants to be somebody: nobody wants to grow.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Spiritual growth consists most in the growth of the root, which is out of sight.
Matthew Henry
Some people’s religion reminds me of a rocking horse, which has motion with no progress.
Rowland Hill
If you are looking for painless ways to grow toward each other and toward maturity, call off the search.
J. Grant Howard
As the sculptor devotes himself to wood and stone, I would devote myself to my soul.
Toyohiko Kagawa
It is as reasonable to suppose it the desire of all Christians to arrive at Christian perfection as to suppose that all sick men desire to be restored to perfect health; yet experience shows us, that nothing wants more to be pressed, repeated, and forced upon our minds, than the plainest rules of Christianity.
William Law
Many do not advance in Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end.
Brother Lawrence
Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.
C.S. Lewis
All growth that is not towards God is growing to decay.
George Macdonald
Growth is the only evidence of life.
J.H. Newman
I asked the Lord that I might grow,
In faith and love and every grace,
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.
It was He who taught me thus to pray,
And He I trust has answered prayer.
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request.
And by his love’s constraining power,
Subdue my sins and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel,
The hidden evils of my heart.
And let the angry powers of hell,
Assault my soul in every part.
Yes, more with His own hand, he seemed,
Intent to aggravate my woe.
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
“Lord, why is this?” I trembling cried.
“Will You pursue this worm to death?”
“This is the way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and strength.”
John Newton
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
Chinese proverb
The quickest way to become an old dog is to stop learning new tricks.
John Rooney
Our knowledge of God must lead to a more intimate relationship with Him or we run the risk of becoming Pharisees.
Douglas Rumford
Gradual growth in grace, growth in knowledge, growth in faith, growth in love, growth in holiness, growth in humility, growth in spiritual-mindedness – all this I see clearly taught and urged in Scripture, and clearly exemplified in the lives of many of God’s saints. But sudden, instantaneous leaps from conversion to consecration I fail to see in the Bible.
J.C. Ryle
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living.
Gail Sheehy
The mother eagle teachers her little ones to fly by making their nest so uncomfortable that they are forced to leave it and commit themselves to the unknown world of air outside. And just so does our God to us.
Hannah Whitall Smith
He who advances rapidly is the one who is humble in heart, who thinks the most humble thoughts and is contrite in mind, and chooses more zealously to follow the divine Scriptures.
Symeon the New Theologian
Twelve signs of grace and predestination:
That man does certainly belong to God who believes and is baptized into all the articles of the Christian faith and studies to improve his knowledge in the matters of God, so as may best make him to live a holy life;
he that, in obedience to Christ, worships God diligently, frequently, and constantly, with natural religion, that is of prayer, praises, and thanksgiving;
he that takes all opportunities to remember Christ’s death by a frequent sacrament, as it can be had, or else by inward acts of understanding, will, and memory (which is the spiritual communion) supplies the want of the external rite;
he that lives chastely; and is merciful;
and despises the world, using it as a man, but never suffering it to rifle [to effect strongly or injuriously] a duty;
and is just in his dealing, and diligent in his calling;
he that is humble in his spirit;
and obedient to government;
and content in his fortune and employment;
he that does his duty because he loves God;
and especially if after all this he be afflicted, and patient, or prepared to suffer affliction for the cause of God;
the man that hath these twelve signs of grace and predestination does as certainly belong to God, and is His son as surely, as he is His creature.
Jeremy Taylor
Progress in the Christian life is exactly equal to the growing knowledge we gain of the Triune God in personal experience.
A.W. Tozer
How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need no more seek Him. The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainerd.
A.W. Tozer
The more we grow in grace, the more shall we flourish in glory. Though every vessel of glory shall be full, yet some vessels hold more.
Thomas Watson
Don’t ask for an easier life; ask to be a stronger person. Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.
Kobi Yamada