How would I define spiritual growth in one sentence? When I consider all my years of study and experience as a pastor, I have come up with this: “The expanding and deepening realization of how much I matter to God.”
For me, that is the root of all other spiritual virtues. From that root comes love for others with no strings attached, and forgiveness for those who have wronged me. From that root comes faith-coated and praise-filled perseverance versus grumbling and complaining. From that root comes the joy of the Lord, peace that surpasses understanding, and supernatural hope that is more than “wishing.” From that root comes authentic prayer before the Lord. From that root comes release from shame and freedom from fear. And so much more!
I believe it is because that precious realization produces such glorious fruit, the evil one relentlessly assaults our belief in God’s love for us, and it is why the Lord has given us the sacrament of Communion as a perpetual reminder of His love.
Our perception of and belief about His love for us is THE front lines of the spiritual battleground. Thus, Paul prayed for an expanding and deepening realization of it for the Ephesians and, by extension, for us.
“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father… I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being… Then you, being rooted and grounded in [His] love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).
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