40 Days of Purpose: Why Growth Takes Time

Becoming like Jesus is a life-long journey. A commitment to developing his character. We can’t rush the process or take shortcuts. We have to accept that the process of Christlikeness is slow.

KEY VERSE

“God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again.” Philippians 1:6 NCV

God wants us to be more like Jesus and I’m sure He appreciates our desire for wanting to get there as fast as possible. But God knows us well, He created us, and He designed everything with intention. There are reasons why becoming like Jesus is a life-long journey.

WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG?

WE ARE SLOW LEARNERS

You may not consider yourself a slow learner but how quickly do you forget?

We become overconfident in our knowledge at times and assume the lesson is learned. Then we forget and must start over. It’s a cycle. Eventually we do learn the lesson, but it can take a lot of forgetting and relearning before we reach that point.

Just look at the Israelites in the wilderness. Within a month of leaving Egypt and slavery they were longing to go back because they couldn’t see God’s promise yet and thought a little suffering in the desert wasn’t worth temporary pain. This wasn’t true, but they couldn’t see past their own needs to trust in God’s plan.

We are forgetful and selfish by nature. God knows this and accounts for it which is why becoming like Jesus takes so long.

WE HAVE A LOT TO UNLEARN

Just because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour doesn’t mean we live like it immediately. We must make an effort to live a transformed life, and habits are hard to break. We must unlearn all the bad habits and practices and replace them with Christlike habits.

Habits are hard to break, and our habits form our character. Character is the sum of our habits. We can’t claim to be kind for example unless we are kind without thinking.

Becoming like Jesus will take time because we often relapse into bad habits because they are so familiar. So, we must practice new Christlike habits and repeat them until they have become ingrained in us just like the bad habits were.

“Take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.” Ephesians 4:22-24 CSB

WE ARE AFRAID TO FACE THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES

Originally, we were designed to be pure and whole then sin entered the picture, and we became flawed and fractured. The journey to Christlikeness is about making us whole again, the image of God restored.

Before Jesus saved us, we lived entirely in darkness but walking in the light exposes the darkness in us. For some the thought of exposing the darkness is terrifying enough to stay in it and stay away from God. We might fear what might be exposed by the light or what we might remember but we cannot let the fear hold us back. What awaits us with God is better than what awaits us without Him.

Sometimes we delay growth because we are unwilling to face the truth, but we cannot grow without confession. We must trust God will forgive us (He will) and admit our sins and mistakes. He already knows He just wants us to tell Him. We must admit who we are (or were) to become who we were meant to be.

GROWTH IS OFTEN PAINFUL AND SCARY

We touched on the fact spiritual growth can lead us to places and thoughts we might not want to go or remember. But it was never meant to be easy or comfortable. Growth requires sacrifice and sometimes pain. It is an uncomfortable process but nothing as horrible as eternity separated from God.

Change requires loss, our old self may be comfortable and familiar but it will drag us to our death so we must let it go. Becoming like Christ means losing the old self so we can step into the new one. It will be difficult and can be scary because sometimes the darkness is so deep in us once the light is let in; we don’t recognise ourselves. But the light version of ourselves is who we were always meant to be. It is the best version of ourselves. But it will take time to let go of our old selves and to become the new.

DON’T GET IN A HURRY

Spiritual growth takes time, and we must try not to rush it. There are a few ways we can work with God through the sanctification process.

BELIEVE GOD IS WORKING IN YOUR LIFE EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL IT

God is always with us, but we don’t always feel His presence. We may not recognise when He is working in us or feel we are changing but we must trust that He is. If we don’t feel Him, it maybe we are being tested in our faith, and this will help us grow.

There is a season for everything in life (Ecclesiastes 3:1). There will be seasons of growth and dryness, but God is in all of them. God does not change if He says He is there He is. If we don’t feel Him, we must trust that He is. How we feel is not always truth for our hearts are deceitful. But God never changes so trust in Him and believe in His Word because He always stays true to His Word.

KEEP A JOURNAL OF LESSONS LEARNED

It can be helpful to take note of lessons God is teaching us. It can be about God himself, relationships, ourselves, it doesn’t matter but doing this helps us remember what God has taught us. It can help us relearn lessons or remind us of them before we forget.

“We must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.” Hebrews 2:1 CSB

BE PATIENT WITH GOD AND YOURSELF

Growth requires patience and particularly spiritual growth. God works on a different timeline than we do. We want things at certain times, but God knows the right time to act because He sees everything.

We must trust in His timing even if it leaves us waiting.

DON’T GET DISCOURAGED

We must look back occasionally and remember how far we’ve come. It’s easy to lost hope and become discouraged when it feels like nothing is changing or we’re not where we wanted to be. It’s helpful to look back and remember at least we’re not where we were.

Becoming like Christ is a long process and sometimes we exaggerate its length particularly in periods of waiting and anticipation. We should not do this because delay does not always mean denial. It could mean it’s not the right time or God has something better in store.

Let’s not lose hope. God is always working even when we don’t see it. He always reveals and provides at the right time. Trust in His Word and believe He will act at the right time for His plan and His glory.

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40 Days of Purpose: Why Growth Takes Time

KEY VERSE