Growth Goals

The next goal topic that we are going to look at in this series is that of growth goals. Growth is defined as several things:

• the process of increasing in physical size.

• the process of increasing in amount, value, or importance.

• the process of developing or maturing physically, mentally, or spiritually.

It’s that last one that I am going to talk about here. So, first off, what are some of your growth goals? These can take the shape of goals designed to make you a better person, sibling, child, friend, student, Christian, etc… Often they have to do with character and attitude, how you react and respond to situations. Are you impulsive or contemplative? Are you assertive? Are you goal oriented? Are you angry? Are you vindictive? Are you self-focused? Community-focused? God-focused? Are you helpful? Are you kind? Growth goals can also take the shape of goals designed to improve your ability in a certain area? That may be sports or hobby related. It may be relational and communicative. It may be educational. It may be spiritual. It may be business related. If growth is the “process of developing or maturing” or “increasing in … value, or importance” then growth related goals are all goals that are designed and intended to make you better, more mature and more qualified in a certain area.

So, why are growth goals important? Just like you are not designed to be a fat, lazy, weak, tired individual, you are not designed to be a stagnant and immature individual. If growth is development and improvement, stagnation is:

• not advancing or developing.

• showing no activity; dull and sluggish.

• having no current or flow and often having an unpleasant smell as a consequence.

The thing is, if you are not growing, you are either dying or stagnant, and neither of those are positive directions in life. God wants you to be growing and maturing in life, as a person, in your pursuits and passions, in Him.

The Bible relates this, often, to the idea of a child growing and maturing. When we are born, as babies, we really rely on others for almost everything. We rely on someone else to feed us, to protect us, to clothe us, to keep us warm, to take us where we need to go, to bathe us, to clean our poopy diapers. We are capable of doing almost nothing on our own, aside from sleeping and crying. We have to have milk, because we are unable to eat anything else. As we start to grow and mature we gain experience and skills and abilities to do more things on our own and for ourselves, and subsequently, for others. You see that’s part of maturing, of growing up, not just getting bigger and gaining skills, but of developing a mature outlook on life and others. There’s a big difference between getting older and growing up.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, Paul says “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

In Hebrews 5:12-14, we see, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

We see in these verses a few things:

• Growth and maturity is intentional. It takes work and practice. It doesn’t just happen.

• You are meant to be mature in Christ.

• Growth comes through God working in and through you. 

We then see in Ephesians 4:11-16 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

You should have a desire and urgency to grow and mature and develop in life, in all areas, and especially when it comes to your relationship with God. God is uninterested in having millions of “followers” who are immature and unable to do anything for themselves or live a life that shows the growth and transformation that He wants to enact in them. He doesn’t want a bunch of immature Christians who run around only thinking about what they want or what others can do for them. He wants you to grow and develop and be mature, to be like Him. That’s what Christian means after-all “Little Christ” or “Christ Follower.” There is a lot that can deceive and derail you, and if you are immature, only drinking milk and never growing into something more, you will be deceived and derailed and “tossed to and fro,” but if you allow God to build and grow you, you will not be useless stinky stagnant water, but will be something amazing, as God intended.