www.bible.com/reading-plans/11667/day/21

It is hard for me to remember well, but I do recall when I first became a Christian, the enthusiasm and utter joy. I want that spark of new life all the time, but it has to be nourished in order to grow. If you don’t feed a fire, it goes out. I feed my fire of faith with God’s Word, with fellowship with other believers, with good Biblical teaching and with a strong and honest relationship with my husband. When I am not “feeling it” my husband encourages me not to lean on the feelings but to instead depend on the truth of the Gospel and the reality of God’s presence in my life. Looking up to God and looking outward to the needs of others helps me to focus on what is important and not just on myself and my own shortcomings. I have found that I grow when I am not expecting to but when I am just waiting on God to act. It is not in the fulfillment of His actions that I grow most; I grow most by just waiting expectantly, knowing that God is working for me and in me and helping me to be more like the person He created me to be.

I recall one of my grandsons had excruciating “growing pains.” Every night when he would retire, I would hear him cry out in pain and his mom would go to him and pray with him, applying heat or ice to his aching legs as the doctors had said to do. I didn’t know that growing pains were real until I saw them in action. Now I realize that sometimes I go through growing pains in my walk with the Lord; no heat or ice works, but prayer does and reading the Word and expressing my needs to other like-minded Christians. We are all walking this earth together until God calls us home. We are all growing together to be more like Christ. Our journey is made easier by helping each other along with encouragement, knowing that the person we may reach out today will probably be the person who reaches out to us tomorrow.