We love our community group that meets in our home (or someone’s home) each week. We had a great discussion recently in one of our meetings.
These are the questions our small group considered. We had a great time talking about them…a few tears were shed…we had some great laughs…and I think we thought through our relationship with God a little more. Perhaps the questions will make you think.
1. What person has most encouraged you in your spiritual growth?
2. What event/activity/season of life caused your spiritual life to grow the most?
3. At what period of your life would you describe as the time when you were closest to God?
4. What changes would you have to make in your life now in order to grow more spiritually?
How would you answer these questions?
Our discussion centered with the fact that we need to see our closeness to God as more of a relationship than a religion. In religion, we have a list to check and complete, but in a relationship, we wrestle through the highs and lows of various degrees of intimacy. When we treat the relationship as something of value, we are more likely to intentionally work to protect and develop the relationship.
Are you more likely to see your closeness with God in terms of a religion or a relationship?
Twitter: joe_sewell
says:
1. I'd have to say my wife has been the greatest encourager for spiritual growth, followed close behind by my mother and some friends from our former church.
2. There were two periods of tremendous spiritual growth. One was at college, of all places, through the people at the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter I helped start. The other was after starting at Calvary Chapel of Melbourne, FL, after 20 years in a "religious" high-liturgical spiritually-dead church. (CCM was the "former church" mentioned in #1 above.)
3. The two times mentioned above were when I felt closest to God. That's not a coincidence, in my opinion.
4. I truly wish I knew what changes I'd have to make right now to grow spiritually. That is a question with which I've been struggling for some time.
Thanks Joe. Sounds like you are wrestling through it though. That's a great step in the process!
1.) My husband has encouraged me most in my spiritual growth because he challenges most everything I come up with and that has caused me to dig deeper.
2.)The season that caused me to grow the most spiritually happened back in 1978-1980 when my husband was at the point of death twice (brain abscesses and a car accident caused by a seizure). I was totally alone with God and He gave me the words to speak in prayer. My husband was healed, I learned the basics of spiritual warfare, and I saw the power of life over death.
3.) Even as a child, I have always been close to God. I live my life seated on a couch between my Papa Father and my big brother Jesus Christ.
4.) I would keep on doing what I have been doing–love God with everything I have and love my neighbor as myself.
My closeness with God has nothing to do with religion. He is my beloved Father and I am His beloved daughter. He is my life.
Great answers!