Ten Years Experience

Some years back when I was an undergraduate, I was discussing with a friend about a church that was dealing with a leadership crisis. During the course of the discussion, my friend told me, 'I'm so tired of this church talk, sometimes I ask myself what I have achieved going to church all these years. If I had joined a cult group at the time I joined the church, imagine what my rank will be by now...'. For a long time, I was thinking about what he said and kept wondering how on earth such a thought came to his mind.

How long have you been in church? What have you achieved? What exactly is your spiritual rank now? I don't mean the position and titles you hold in your church, what is your Christian maturity level? If you're not satisfied with your answers to this question or feel like my friend that there should be evidence of your walk with God after your many years of being a Christian, then you need to understand what the bible teaches about spiritual growth.

Nobody will really grow your Christianity for you. The bible says this to people who are not making headway in their Christian walk: 'You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.' (Heb. 5:12) Obviously, the bible is blaming these sets of Christians for their problems. God expected them to grow but they didn't. There is no one that will lay hands on you to make you grow, your spiritual growth is your personal responsibility.

One of the stories in the bible that has greatly challenged me over the years is the story of Jesus' disciples not being able to heal a child of convulsion. They tried but they couldn't. They were very sincere and probably did everything they have seen Jesus do without success. How frustrated they might have been after such disappointment. When Jesus came, he said: ''You unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.'. Though many bible commentaries are of the opinion that these words were directed to the crowd (scribes) and not to the disciples. However, Jesus' later response to the disciples on why they couldn't heal the boy reveals that the issue was from their side. They have been so careless with prayers and fasting.

My brethren you must be very deliberate with your walk with God to ensure consistent growth. You're responsible for that. When we have years of experience in our place of work, we are expected to be good with the work and understand its intricacies. The same thing applies to our work with God. We must plan to grow and not have ten or twenty years of experience in the church with nothing to show for it.

Learn to be consistent with your walk with God. You can make mistakes following God but never give up. If you're sincere and deliberate in your walk with him, you will grow in your experience, learn from your mistakes and advance greatly. Just as the bible said of Enoch, I say to you: Walk with God and walk in Love. Feed on things that help your spiritual growth and surely you will have great testimonies of your experience of walking with God. The earlier you begin to walk with God deliberately, the better.