How People Grow: What the Bible Reveals About Personal Growth

We give up the role of playing judge with ourselves and others by giving up judgmentalism, condemnation, wrath, shaming, and so on so that we are free to experience ourselves and others as we really are. So, by not being God, we are free to be who we truly are and allow others to be who they truly are as well.

We were not to judge, but to live the good life apart from judging it. Imagine that: doing good, enjoying good, and not even thinking that we were “good.” Instead of being concerned with “Am I good enough?” we just lived and experienced life. We were to experience all that God had given us in pleasure, work, and relationship. Live it to all the lim

Spiritual growth is not only about coming back into a relationship with God and each other, and about pursuing a pure life, but it is also about coming back to life— the life that God created for people to live. This life of deep relationship, fulfilling work, celebration, and more gives us the life we desire and solves our problems. As Paul says,

So two of the questions this book will answer are these: What helps people grow? How do those processes fit into our orthodox understanding of spiritual growth and theology? If we could answer these two questions, we thought that we would be doing a good thing. And then it occurred to us that one more thing is important. If those who want to grow a

Examine your view of how spiritual growth and real life are connected. Is there a disconnect between the life of God and your “real” life?

God’s role is to be in control of the big picture, and our role is to be in control of our self and our responsibilities. In short, to maintain “self-control.”