Just as my wife has never been content to just move into a home without redecorating it, God does not move into our lives just to leave us as we are. The apostle Paul reminded Christians in Colossae that they have “the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The Spirit has moved into our lives, and He is committed to continually reworking and remodeling us. Spiritual growth is the reworking that God does in us.
Yes, we have a part to play. Just two verses later, Paul writes he was “striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” (Colossians 1:29) He was striving but not in his own strength.
Striving
If we don’t strive toward Him, we will drift from Him. D. A. Carson wrote: “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.” You will strive or you will drift. Just like your garage won’t drift into being clean, your car won’t drift into being aligned, and your body won’t drift into health—you won’t drift into spiritual growth.
To be weak
We can be tempted to think that growing spiritually is about growing in our strength but to grow spiritually is about growing in our weakness so we will learn to depend more and more on God’s strength. The Scriptures, and faithful men and women throughout history, give us spiritual disciplines that God uses to grow us. Habits like prayer, reading the Scripture, fasting, corporate worship, serving, and giving. These disciplines are ultimately not what grows us; God grows us. But He uses the striving in these disciplines to grow us. All the disciplines have one thing in common. They help us strive to be weak so we will depend on Him and not ourselves. The spiritual disciplines are about striving to be weak—not striving to be strong.
In prayer, you humble yourself before Him and depend on His power and not your own power.
In reading the Scripture, you confess you need His wisdom and not your own.
In fasting, you make yourself weak so you are reminded in your hunger to hunger for Him.
In gathering with others in worship, you confess you need community and His grace.
In serving, you put yourself in a position where you are overwhelmed and need His strength.
In giving, you disadvantage yourself and live with less, trusting He will provide.
Spiritual disciplines help you embrace weakness because when you are weak, you are strong. When we are weak in ourselves, we are strong in our Savior.
