Are you growing as a Christian? This is an excellent question for many of us who feel stuck spiritually or feel like we are regressing. How do we walk forward and move past baby steps? How do we get past struggling with the same things over and over again? We can grow as Christians in four steps: living, breathing, eating, and moving.

“Living” means a connection to God. Without life, we can’t breathe, eat, or move. A corpse can do nothing but rot. Before we can do anything, we must be alive. Life as a Christian is the connection to God; we must become one Him. We try to make this connection as strong as possible by connecting to His redemption and resurrection. Think about what Jesus did for us, how He died on the cross and resurrected.

Once we are alive, the next step is to breathe. Prayer is like breathing and should be as natural as breathing. It fills us with life, and we communicate with God through prayer. If we pray like we breathe, constant and reflexive, we will grow as Christians.

Third, we must “eat” the word of God and Holy Inspiration. After breathing, we must consume food to grow and stay healthy. We must read and study the Bible. We must listen to sermons. In this stage, we should continuously nourish ourselves with the word of God. We keep the word of God close to our hearts and approach His word by whatever medium is available.

Fourth, we must move and be active. Without moving or exercising, we will never grow. After being infused with life, breathing, and eating, we must move and be active. Moving as Christians means preaching the word of God and evangelizing others. We must be active in reaching out to others and preaching the gospel. We must do this act through love. Our intentions and motivations must be pure.

To grow as Christians, we must first connect to God! This is life. Then, we must pray as we breathe. We must pray and communicate with God. We must stay close to the word of God and keep those words close to our hearts. And finally, we must preach the gospel to others. If we do these four things, we will grow as Christians.

Summary
4 Stages of Growth
1. Life- connect to God
2. Breathe- prayer
3. Eat- word of God
4. Move- preach the gospel

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