Spiritual Growth

To those who seek God half-heartedly or not at all, He appears to be unjust, unfair, cruel, or arbitrary.  To those who seek Him with a whole devoted heart, He reveals Himself to be just, fair righteous, loving, patient, and merciful.  It is impossible to approach the knowledge of God, as He is, without some degree of faith.  And faith combined with a growing knowledge leads to utter devotion, which in turn leads to increased knowledge, which makes devotion desirable.

To make one's growth contingent upon someone else's growth, for any reason, is an all-too-common act of self-defeat which is, at root, evil in the sense that it is a great delusion.  We must never place another person in the position of preventing or blocking our growth toward and into God.  We must wake up to our own power and responsibility to grow, which can not be retarded by others except to the degree that we are deluded into believing that it can be.  We must detach from growth-encumbering attachments to others; and this must be carefully understood as not detaching from love (care, concern, willingness to sacrifice, etc.) for them.  We must not, in our love for others, be attached to a need for them to grow; or a need for them to love us.

Our technology has literally sky-rocketed to the moon; and figuratively, beyond.  If we will now be still, and know that He is God, our technology, guided by His wisdom, may be harnessed to serve our world for the enhancement of life.

Inch by inch, day by day, as water on the land, unseen forces are shaping our personality.  It is foolish not to make this a conscious process.  The unseen forces, and their long-term effects upon the personality, can be discerned through the Holy Spirit.  If we do not make this a conscious process, then we do not know who we will be five years from now.  And, perhaps more frightening, if our spouse does not, we do not know who he or she will be.  In this light we see that those who are not living a devoted life have a greater "faith" (if we may call it that) than those who are seeking God and His Way, for they are trusting those unseen and unknown forces that are shaping their personalities each day, to shape them into something good, pleasant, or worthy.