Making Forward Progress

When my wife and I moved into our house, we found a way to either work outside or inside to make changes to the home weekly for the first year we lived in it. Not long after I had mowed the grass one summer evening, our neighbor Tim walked across the grass and remarked that we were always doing something to make the property look better. Homeowners know where I am going with this one:  it is a combination of community pride and helping property values rise. Perhaps I was thinking about the New England Patriots’ training camp and ensuing preseason schedule when I replied, “man, we’re just making forward progress.”

As believers in Christ, we should never be satisfied to stay in one role thinking we have reached the pinnacle of spiritual success rather continue to “grow in the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Jesus does remind us in John 15:16 that we are chosen to go out and bear fruit. As a result of healthy growth, our spiritual fruit continues to grow throughout our lives. Our Lord is the vine, we are the branches. As long as we grow together, we will bear lots of good-tasting fruit.

In a move of forward progress to become more like God, we can be content that He who began a good work in us will continue it until it is completed upon His return.