The Path Upward

Ever since the moment you became a Christian, you’ve had a passionate desire to grow in your faith.  This goal definitely has its ups and downs, but for the most part the road to more maturity seems to constantly be ever present in your life.

There are several disciplines that must be incorporated in your life to achieve growth, such as prayer, obedience, growing in faith, faithful daily reading of God’s Word, among others.  Reading and memorizing Scripture plays an extremely important part in this upward path to spiritual growth.  John Wesley played an important part in church history.  Wesley nails the way to the upward progress of spiritual maturity when he said, “Reading Christians are growing Christians.  When Christians cease to read, they cease to grow.”  Wow!  Think about that for a minute.  More than likely, when you are not daily reading your Bible and Christian books, you are not growing in your Christian faith.

Paul was on one of his missionary journeys and met a group of believers that were skeptical of what he said.  They did not accept what Paul preached to them at face value.  These believers wanted to know for sure that what was being said was biblical.  Look what happened after Paul delivered a word from God, “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).  Yes, these Berean Christians read and studied their Bible to determine the validity of the sermons they heard.  The result was they grew in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is your model to live your Christian life.  To be on that upward path to maturity requires that you make it a point to spend time reading God’s Word and Christian books.  Put reading as a top priority in your life!