At Gateway Church in Austin we continued our series Momentum which is about overcoming our issues and struggles. This week at the South campus Bruce Gilson shared. Here are some of his insights:
“The old adage ‘You are what you eat.’ reminds us that our lives are shaped by the choices we make.
If we try to apply this series to our lives but skip today’s step, then this entire series would be a waste of time.
We need to allow God to renew our mind so we can understand what He wants for us. Romans 12:2
We need to exert the effort to train in order to become the person God wants us to be. Spiritual training produces results. 1 Timothy 4:8
Training moves us forward. God works in our lives and makes us new, but we have to then live out what He has done for us.
Four ways to train spiritually (no matter where you are on your spiritual journey):
1. We are already training spiritually even if we aren’t aware of it. We are deeply impacted by what we put into our minds. ‘Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.’ 2 Cor. 6:12
2. Get disciplined or be disciplined. For example, in school we either go thru the pain of studying before the test or the pain of failing the test if we didn’t study. Just as an athlete continues to work out and a nutritionist continues to eat in a healthy way, spiritually we need to build on what we’ve done rather than live on the efforts from our past.
3. Never train alone. Running partners are a way to help others in their spiritual life while they help me. We have to be intentional in our relationships to ask each other the hard questions. Hebrews 10:24-25
4. Small steps over a long period of time beat big steps all at once. We cannot microwave spiritual growth. Eccl. 7:16
What are the small steps God wants us to take to move forward?”
You can watch this message here in a couple of days and the rest of the series at http://www.gatewaychurch.com/podcast.
