GROWTH MINDSET

PASTOR RYAN LADEN – DEVOTIONALS

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Personal maturity and growth in your walk with the Lord is not automatic, but intentional. We must choose to do the work needed to move from where we are today to where the Lord calls us to be next. If you have a desire to mature in your faith, deepen in your understanding of the things of God, and become more useful and effective as a follower of Christ, then you need to have a growth mindset toward your walk with the Lord. 

Just because we are blessed to live another day does not mean that we will grow and develop in wisdom and understanding. Too many think that because they have worn the badge of being a Christian for a long period of time, this will somehow impart strength, endurance, and maturity to them. 

This is not true. 

Seek

If we want to grow and mature as children of God, then we need to seek growth and pursue maturity with passion and energy. In the passage that follows, we hear a great example of what it means to have a growth mindset as a follower of Jesus:

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

(2 Peter 1:5-9 NIV11)

Start with the Goal

What is the goal of all the actions being recommended in this teaching? 

We can hear the answer in verse 8, “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If we seek growth as described in this passage we will become more effective and productive as we seek to apply the truth of Christ to our lives. 

The Lord does not want his faithful people to waste their lives or just sort of exist in this life. Instead, the Lord desires that his people be the kind of people who are always growing, expanding, learning, and developing a deeper and more meaningful connection with the Lord. 

Effort

We often think that any effort on our part to grow and mature is somehow wrong and that if the Lord wants us to mature and develop that he will do all the work. Often, we confuse the grace of God provided to us through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross with our own calling and responsibility to work hard for the Lord inside the kingdom of God. 

We are most definitely saved by God’s grace as we embrace this gift by faith. This is the beauty and wonder of the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. But we are absolutely called by God to exercise this salvation, get up and move, and live as those who have been included in the gift of the cross. 

In this passage, we are being called to exercise, to get up and do something that will aid in our personal spiritual maturity and growth. 

Increasing

In verse 8, we are told, “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure….” We are called to growth and expansion. The Lord wants us to add to our faith in Christ these attributes and characteristics in increasing measure. 

We are called to add a little bit more to our daily walk with the Lord so that we will expand in our significance, impact, and usefulness as leaders within the kingdom of God. 

Prayerful

As we close this devotion, why not spend a minute or two prayerfully asking the Lord to help you take steps of expanding action as you pursue each of the following today:

•   Goodness
•   Knowledge
•   Self-control
•   Perseverance
•   Godliness
•   Mutual affection for other believers
•   Love

In Christ, 

Ryan Laden

PASTOR RYAN LADEN

Works at MTN. CHURCH

Former Senior pastor at Warnbro Community Church

Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Studied at Baylor University

Studied at Texas Tech University

Went to Castle Hills First Baptist

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