Growing Pains

Okay so to start this out let me just say this is my first blog and I debated weather or not to write one but then I realized might as well right?

So ladies and gents buckle your seat belts and get ready for the ride of your life. This first blog post is going to be about the pains we feel while we grow. Anytime as a kid that my joints started hurting my mom always told me that it was growing pains. I had no clue that even as an adult I would have these growing pains. They aren't always physical either. As a human if you are not growing you are dying plain and simple. The same goes for followers of Christ. Granted its not a physical death and no this isn't saying that if you aren't growing you aren't saved. But what I am saying is that if you are following Christ and you aren't growing you may want to look at your life and see what is happening. I have been there and it sucks. When you first accept Christ as your savior you are "born again" this basically means you are an infant in your spiritual walk. The thing is that when I was saved I started with a huge bang. I was in my word everyday and I was praying all the time and I was living the life God had planned for me. But after a while my walk started to fizzle out and after a while I was nothing more than the shell of a once devoted follower of Christ. I prayed sometimes and I read my bible on Wednesdays and Sundays so I thought I was growing. Wrong. Just because I was reading my bible twice a week didn't mean I was devoted or growing. I thought it did. But it wasn't till the summer that I started to see that I had forsaken the once bold and amazing walk I had with Christ. It took someone who I am close to too show me that I am not where I need to be. I hadn't touched my bible in weeks and not even kidding you that thing had dust on it. See what is often not told to people who receive Christ is that this can and does sometimes happen. You start out like a Champ and then your gradually begin to fall back into your old habits. I hate to admit it but sometimes its because its easier and a little less painful to quit being devoted and go back to the old you because people like the old you better.

But here's the kicker when you aren't growing God tends to put things in your life to try and start the growing process again. My process was restarted when a friend of mine was struggling on what to say to a friend who had lost someone close. That may seem weird but I have lost people who were close to me and I know that pain. But it when you look into a friends eyes and see that they really don't know what to say that is sometimes when you understand, that life is painful. With my walk I needed this "pain" in my life to have my eyes opened to the fact that I was hurting God by simply blowing of time with Him to be selfish. I couldn't help my friend because I couldn't help myself. My spiritual walk was dying because I was choosing not to grow. I choose this by making small sacrifices everyday, I would choose not to read and not to pray because something else in my eyes was more important. But the worst part of it all was that I was okay with the fact that I wasn't growing. See its when you hit this point that you finally understand how your sin nature is still there and the devil is still trying to get to you. Just because you accept Christ doesn't mean you are all of a sudden immune to the devil and the temptation put in front of you. What it does mean is that you have a way to fight the temptation. You reading and growing in your walk with Christ means that temptation gets somewhat easier to fight. It is not gone just smaller compared to an amazing God who wants you to live an amazing life.

You will hurt and you will fall and when you do fall if you strong in your walk you will see these failures as growing pains. Chances to learn and grow in the right direction. God isn't some kid in heaven with a magnify glass burning the little ants. He is a teacher, a healer, a mentor, a father, and He is an amazing God who has plans for you but only if you are willing to grow and have a little pain in the process.

I know this blog is all over the place and for that I say sorry. My thoughts are a little all over the place tonight I feel like I can take this blog in 15 different directions but honestly I only want to take it in the direction God wants it to go in. So with that being said if there is anything in here that you read and don't like tell me. Shoot me a tweet  or facebook message and I will talk to you about your concerns there. If there is anything that I can pray for you about let me know and I will pray for you and your needs. That is all I have for now and hopefully you gained something from reading this other than seeing that I have the attention span of a 5 year old :) till next time ladies and gents.