Inner Attitudes and Spiritual Growth

The question from the study guide that I chose to reflect on this week is which inner attitudes inspire my growth in Christ, and which put up blocks to my growth. It's certainly a good question and one that is worthy of some good thought. So here we go:

In terms of what inner attitude inspires my growth, I'd have to say the biggest by far is thankfulness. When I have a thankful heart for God and His incredible faithfulness, then I find I spend less time worrying about what I don't have - either materially, physically (health-wise) or spiritually) - and more time being grateful for God's incredible provision in my life; even things that I wouldn't necessarily choose for myself. There's a song I heard a long time ago with a phrase in it that says "when you can't trace His hand, trust His heart". In other words, even when life in our broken world brings me lemons and I just can't see how God could use it for the good (and question why it had to happen in the first place), I'm way happier when I can remain thankful for God's heart and character; trusting in His love for me and knowing that He will see me through. This kind of thankfulness - when I am able to practice it - produces a whole new way of looking at the world and events around me and inspires great growth for me in my spiritual walk.

In the flip side, it's thinking about what I don't have, that is perhaps the biggest block to my growth. This most often for me takes a spiritual form. Sometimes I give so much attention to my own sinfulness and how I need to be better in one area or another, that I forget to rejoice in my salvation and be thankful for God's amazing grace. The result when this happens is a joyless and stagnant life. I start comparing myself to others who I perceive are better in those areas of my life where I struggle, and it leaves me feeling like I'm somehow not good enough. So it's easy to give up and say I can never be good enough. I guess this relates to pride, because it seems to me that these feelings must in some form stem from the thought that I could ever somehow be "good enough" to earn God's love acceptance and forgiveness. All of these thought patterns of course center around ME and MY will or ability to change, or MY need to feel good enough - and they take GOD totally out of the equation. I think the better attitude to have is thankfulness for being fearfully and wonderfully made in God's image, trust in His love for me, and remembering that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"....not in my own power but in God's alone through Christ. That way, as the Bible says, His strength really is made perfect in my weakness.