Spiritual Development

We facelife changes, face unique challenges, and grow. “Spiritual development” is about how a person grows in their ability to cope with these realities while their connection to God and his people continues to flourish. Our spiritual livescan be compromised in many ways by the challenges we face in life.

Emotions, which are a blessing that allows us to experience life fully, can overwhelm us and lead us into unhealthy patterns of relating to God, ourselves, and others – anger, fear, pleasure, and other emotions can become destructive in our lives. Emotional maturity is thus an important part of our spiritual development as it helps us experience and work out our emotional lives in a healthy, balanced way.

Other challenges, such as mental health concerns, stress, illness, grief and loss, career roadblocks, relationships with spouses, friends, family and so much more are tied intimately to our spiritual development. They are the arena in which we live our lives and apply God’s wisdom.

We can face these issues and situations in ways that deepen our relationship with God and others, or we can react to them in a manner that undermines those important relationships and that negatively affects our well-being.Spiritual development is about helping a person cultivate their relationship with God and learn to use the resources God providesto face the challenges that come their way with a positive outlook, handling them in ways that bring help us flourish.

All human beings are spiritual creatures, even the most ardent materialist. We were created as beings who have physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and other aspects. To be who God created us to be, it is important to explore and grow in those areas.So, it’s not just those who are “religious” who can benefit from spiritual development – every person, regardless of their age, gender, social and economic location, marital status, or ethnicity can and should cultivate their spiritual aspects to become fully themselves.

To understand who we are, knowing where we come from and for whom we were created helps us immensely. Our lives are punctuated with difficulties, tragedies, and triumphs, and much else that can be confusing or disorienting. A person needs a sense of meaning and purpose, something their life is oriented towards and anchored in, and one’s ideas about God play a huge role in that regard.

As one Christian wrote in his memoir over fifteen hundred years ago, “You have created us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”Career success, material goods, and other pursuits that our culture values won’t meet our deepest need for significance and meaning. Our restless wanderings in life are often a search for meaning, often in places where meaning can’t be found. If God is the ultimate reality of the universe, meaning can only be found with reference to God.

To embark on that journey toward spiritual growth and finding meaning, the input of others is invaluable. Spiritual development is about taking an intentional journey with someone else to make sense of your own life amid the crises, joys, troubles, and losses that punctuate our lives. Other people, whether a therapist or spiritual adviser, are trained to discern the dynamics at play in a person’s life, in addition to having an outsider’s perspective to help a person navigate their situation.

Intentional spiritual development helps a person to cultivate practices and develop a way of being in the world that is cognizant of God and our nature as spiritual beings. Having the tools you need to cope with a wide swathe of life circumstances enables you to face life with confidence and be better positioned to flourish. Spiritual development can help a person in several ways, including:

Forming and deepening a relationship with God. Our spiritual lives are anchored in a relationship with God. To be in a relationship with someone, you must know who they are, and what they are like. That’s how trust develops in any relationship – doing life together and discovering more about one another as you do so. Whether through practices such as reading Scripture, meditation, journaling, or prayer, that relationship can be cultivated.

Beyond these, understanding and applying the resources and promises of God is an important skill that a person can develop. Being able to adjust your thought patternsso that you perceive yourself and your circumstances from God’s perspective can help one deal with negative self-perceptions, anxiety, and other concerns.

Developing tools to help you deal with crises in life. “In this life, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).These words from Jesus remind us that life will be hard in places, and we aren’t exempt from that hardship or challenges. Situations such as job loss, grief over losing loved ones, health challenges, relationship conflict, stress, important plans falling through, and so many other things thata person can expect to happen at some point in their life. How do we deal with the setbacks? Investing in their spiritual development can help a person deal with these challenges constructively and become more resilient.

Positioning you to flourish and help others in their walk.Your spiritual development isn’t only about managing crises and learning to cope with life’s challenges, though it certainly does help with that. Your spiritual growth gives you tools to help you discover the meaning of life with Godas your ultimate reference point, discover your spiritual gifts, develop, and exercise these gifts.

God has given his people gifts, and those gifts are meant to be used to build up the church and bless others. At the meeting point of our gifting and the world’s need lies our greatest potential for service and finding joy. The benefits reaped from personal growth radiate outward, too. We can develop the ability to help others become better people.

A spiritually mature mother is better placed to relate to her children in life-giving ways that allow her children to be who God made them to be. An employer with a clear sense of who they are in God won’t be seeking validation from their employees, removing an unhealthy dynamic in the workspace that can develop when employers are insecure.

Christian counseling uses evidence-based techniques for therapy, but it also rests on the promises of Jesus Christ for his people and the resources of Scripture and prayer. Drawing upon these varied resources, your counselor will create a safe, non-judgmental space within which you can explore your questions, pain, areas of confusion and so much more.

Each person has a unique story and specific needs.With an awareness of and sensitivity to this, your counselor will listen to your story and walk with you on your journey toward spiritual growth even as they address other issues you may be facing. If you believe in Jesus Christ and desire to live your life authentically and in a way that pleases him, investing in your spiritual growth will yield benefit in this life and in the world to come.

The challenges that will inevitably come our way in this life can knock us down, but we can grow in our resilience and ability to cope. Your journey toward flourishing spiritually and in other ways can begin today – browse the directory of counselors to find a trained and empathetic partner for your journey. Make an appointment today with any one of the counselors to begin walking in the abundance of life Jesus spoke about and promised to his people.