Growth in Practice

What does spiritual growth actually look like in everyday life? For many Christians, this question brings a sense of frustration. “I’m just not growing,” we sometimes lament, feeling stuck in our spiritual journey. But perhaps we’re asking the wrong question.

Instead of making blanket statements about our lack of growth, we need to get specific. Are we not growing in faith? In wisdom? In patience? In love? Growth in the Christian life isn’t a single, monolithic experience—it’s multifaceted, touching every area of how we live, work, relate to others, and honor God.

The Foundation: A Redeemed Life

Before we can discuss growth, we must establish the foundation. The Apostle Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-14 is directed specifically to believers—those who have already received the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is crucial. Spiritual growth requires spiritual life.

Just as Jesus spoke of good soil that receives the seed and produces fruit, and just as He described branches that must be connected to the vine, growth begins with conversion. We must first trust Christ as Savior, experiencing redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. We must be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, qualified by God Himself to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints.

Without this foundation, attempts at spiritual growth are like trying to get fruit from a plastic plant. It may look the part, but there's no life flowing through it.

A Word-Controlled Life

Paul’s prayer reveals that growth begins with being “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9). The word filled carries the same meaning as when Paul tells believers to “be filled with the Spirit”—it speaks of control.
To grow spiritually means to be controlled by the knowledge of God’s will. But this isn’t about mystical experiences or waiting for divine “revelations.” God has already revealed His will—His desires for how we live our everyday lives—in Scripture.

This knowledge involves three essential components:

• First, knowing God's will as revealed in Scripture. We discover what God desires for us by engaging with His Word. The blessed person meditates on God's law day and night. The good soil receives and retains the seed of God's Word. Growth requires that we know what God has said.
• Second, having spiritual understanding to make connections. This is where we bridge the gap between biblical principles and our life circumstances. Take the command to "honor your father and mother." What does that look like for an eleven-year-old child? For a twenty-year-old college student? For a thirty-year-old parent? For someone who grew up in an abusive home? Spiritual understanding makes these connections between God's revealed will and our specific situations.
• Third, possessing wisdom to apply what we know. Wisdom is the skill of putting knowledge to work in the right way. Just as the craftsman Bezalel had not only knowledge of metals but the wisdom to create beautiful objects from them, we need the wisdom to apply God's Word appropriately to our circumstances.

Consider this process: You know God's command. You understand how it connects to your situation. Now you need wisdom to apply it correctly. This is what transforms biblical knowledge from information into transformation.

A Christ-Pleasing Life

The goal of being controlled by God's Word isn't to make our lives easier, more comfortable, or more prosperous. The goal is singular and glorious: “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him” (Colossians 1:10).

What does a Christ-pleasing life look like?

It's a life that reflects Christ's character—His lowliness, gentleness, and long-suffering. It’s a life that reflects His priorities and His heart, particularly His passion for the gospel. When all is said and done, we live for an audience of One.

This has profound implications for every area of life. In your parenting, your teaching, your construction work, your retail job, your business ownership, your housekeeping, your friendships, your marriage—in everything, the question becomes: “Does this please Christ? Does this reflect His character? Does this align with His priorities?”

A Progressively Changing Life

Growth in the Christian life produces three interconnected results:

• Fruitfulness in every good work. Whatever your labor—your job, your studies, your home management, your service in the church, your family life—you bear fruit. As one Puritan writer noted, just as it's the glory of an olive tree to be fruitful, so it's the glory of a Christian to be fruitful in their place and calling. When ability, opportunity, and a willing heart meet for doing good, this is glorious.
• Increasing knowledge of God. Here's a beautiful dynamic in the Christian life: the more you apply what you already know about God, the more He teaches you about Himself. As you step out in obedience—perhaps in giving, in serving, in forgiving—you discover God's faithfulness in new ways. Your knowledge of Him becomes experiential, not just intellectual.
• Empowerment by God's power. As you walk in obedience, you're "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power" (Colossians 1:11). This divine empowerment produces greater endurance through life's difficulties and deeper calmness in dealing with difficult people—all with joy.

This is Christlikeness. Jesus endured the cross "for the joy that was set before Him." He faced mockery, rejection, pain, and agony with patient endurance. As we grow, we increasingly reflect this same character.

The Question Before Us

So the question isn't simply, “Am I growing?” The question is: “What is my number one goal in life?”

Is it success? Comfort? Prosperity? Happiness?

Or is it glorifying God by walking worthy of the Lord Jesus and pleasing Him?

If God has delivered you from sin and death through the blood of His Son, this must be your driving ambition—accomplished as you are filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit in every good work, and being strengthened by His glorious power.

This is growth. This is the Christian life. This is what it means to truly flourish in your calling, whatever and wherever that may be.

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