There's no standing still in the Christian life

A friend of mine once invited me on a walk to go see an "amazing" lake. When we hit the 30-minute mark, I said, "I'm getting pretty tired. Maybe we should head back."

But my friend, who likes to walk, said, "No, it's just a little further."

When we had been walking for an hour and 20 minutes, we passed someone going in the opposite direction. I said, "Excuse me, is there a lake up there?"

The hiker said, "Oh yeah. It's way up there!"

I said to my friend, "I'm going back."

But he encouraged me to keep going. "Greg, come on," he said. "You're going to love this lake!"

We finally made it to the lake, which really was more of a pond. And then we began the journey back. We ended up walking a total of 6 miles. That might not be a lot for some people. But for me, it was a long walk.

Sometimes in our spiritual lives, we need someone who pushes us forward, because we can get discouraged. We think, "I can't go another step. I'm done."

It's good to have a Christian friend who comes alongside us and says, "You can go further. You can do more. Let me help you. Let me encourage you." That's because if we're not moving forward in our relationship with Christ, we are naturally going backward. There is no standing still in the Christian life.

I have been asked about notable people who once claimed to be Christians and then declared they weren't Christians anymore. News like that concerns us, because we think, "Am I next? Am I going to abandon my faith?"

That is entirely up to us.

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One of the signs of the last days is that some will fall away from the faith. The Bible says, "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths" (2 Timothy 4:3–4 NLT).

One indication that you're going in the wrong direction is if you challenge Scripture. Sometimes we'll come across passages that don't make sense to us. That is the time to talk to a pastor or someone who has been reading the Bible for a while to give us clarification.

But there is a difference between that and challenging Scripture. If you come to a passage and say you don't like it because you don't want to do what the Bible says, that is a different matter altogether. We don't adapt the Bible to our lifestyle; we adapt our lifestyle to the Bible and understand that it is God's inspired Word.

True believers may stumble, but they ultimately will return to God. And if they do not return to God, then they never really were true believers to begin with.

The Christian life is one of constant growth. The apostle Peter wrote, "Make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone" (2 Peter 1:5–7 NLT).

He goes on to say, "The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:8 NLT).

Peter was saying that we won't reach some plateau where we know it all. And who better to tell us about this than Simon Peter, whose faux pas are legendary.

One day Jesus said to him, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:31–32 NLT).

Jesus lives to make intercession for us (see Hebrews 7:25). Jesus is praying for you.

The Bible says, "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18 NLT). This simply means that we should go through life aware of our weakness, vulnerability, and propensity to do the wrong thing.

Self-confidence leads to another step down, which is prayerlessness. Not praying about something actually can be a sin. While a sin of commission is doing what you should not do, a sin of omission is not doing what you should do. The Bible says, "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it" (James 4:17 NLT).

All too often we worry instead of pray. Yet the Bible reminds us, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6–7 NLT).

True believers are never happy when they're out of fellowship with God. If you're out of fellowship with God and have sinned against him, then you'll be unhappy. And if you can't be happy in your sin, then that is a good sign.

Christians who try to compromise their beliefs will end up in a miserable no-man's-land where they have too much of the Lord to be happy in the world and too much of the world to be happy in the Lord. If you hang around with the wrong people in the wrong places, the next thing you know, you will be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that person.

There has to come a point in our lives as Christians when we say, "I'm responsible for my own actions. I make my choices, and then my choices make me. I have Christ living inside me, and he will give me the power to live the life he has called me to live."

A wise, growing Christian will realize there is always so much to learn. There is so much that needs to still change in our lives as we're transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

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