We serve a God of growth. Just look all around you. From the beautiful trees and flowers to human beings. When God says grow, nothing we do will stop it from happening. Don’t be mistaken, even when we don’t SEE the growth, it is happening. If you feel stuck or would love to see growth in different areas of your life, this series is for you. Each week we will focus on an area of growth. You will notice EVERY week includes spiritual growth because, without it, nothing in our lives will grow.
Week One: Mindset
Why it matters: Thoughts, feelings, behaviors. Change your mind, change your life.
What could be different if your mindset grew: You could break barriers.
God growth: 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Growth resource: How People Grow by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend and Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer
Weekly grow challenge: Pay attention to your thoughts. Notice themes. Practice taking them captive.
Week Two: Emotions
What could be different if you grew strong emotionally: You would have more self-control. You would be able to communicate more clearly. You would feel less like a ticking time bomb or volcano ready to erupt. You would form a healthy relationship with your emotions so instead of controlling you, they would help you.
God Growth: Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
TWO things we see here: It’s okay to feel angry, just don’t act out in it. Next, RESOLVE it. If you can’t process right away because you are too upset, that’s okay. But don’t wake up the next day and pretend nothing happened. It’s still there. Be brave enough to deal with it.
Growth Resources:
How People Grow by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
The emotion wheel
Weekly grow challenge: Let’s pause for a moment to see your response to two of these basic emotions:
- When was the last time you remember feeling sad? Did you allow yourself to feel it? Did you tell anyone you felt it (in other words, did you express it)?
- When was the last time you felt happy? Did you express it? Sometimes when we train ourselves to not feel sad or uncomfortable emotions, we also shut down feeling happy emotions.
Pay attention to your emotions and what you do with them when they come up. Do you feel and express?
Week Three: Physical
Physical growth is usually the first place our mind goes to when we think about self-improvement. There are enough physical challenges and exercise programs on the market to last you all year. But today, I want to challenge how we view and approach physical growth. For most women, we view physical growth through the lens of shrinking. Dream with me for a moment about physical growth that doesn’t focus on shrinking, rather, it focuses on what our body is capable of doing when submitting it to God.
Why physical strength matters:
If you don’t feel well, it affects every area of your life.
What could be different:
More energy, excitement, confidence, activities of daily living, stronger mindset
Growth Resource:
How People Grow by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
Revelation Wellness
BackBodyClinic.com
Weekly grow challenge:
Ask God how He wants to partner with you to grow physically. Maybe it’s doing something you’ve never done before. Or perhaps giving up something you know isn’t nourishing your body (excess sugar or alcohol). Do some research on a physical challenge that excites and challenges you.
Week Four: Accountability
This week I had planned to dive deeper into spiritual growth, but the day I went to record the Holy Spirit got my attention and asked me to pivot and talk about accountability. Accountability is scary. It feels like we are giving up control because we are. Accountability takes humility because we have to confess our weaknesses. We have to admit we are prone to sin and fall into temptation. My friend, if you think you don’t have a weak link, think again. The enemy knows if he can get us to wander alone, we are a much easier target to eliminate. We avoid wandering alone by being in community and then letting people really see us.
Why accountability matters: Because God loves us too much to let us get caught up in something we could have avoided. I can’t help but wonder how many leaders would still be going today if they had true accountability in their lives. We have to do better in this area and it starts in our own home.
What could be different: You could walk in your calling but more importantly…you could live free. Things that are in the dark are the enemy’s playground. It’s time to kick him out! Accountability isn’t just scary…it makes us sharper!
Growth Resource:
How People Grow by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
Tested and Approved: 21 Lessons for life and ministry by Tom Lane
Lisa Whittle Jesus Over Everything and The Hard Good
Weekly grow challenge
- Ask God to show you an area He wants you to submit to accountability
- Let your friends or family in and be sure to let them know how big of a deal it is that you are letting them in so they don’t take it lightly.
- Unsubscribe or unfollow anything tempting you
- Set a date (if it’s physical accountability) to register for a race, etc.