Nearing Home by Billy Graham (best book club books for discussion txt) 📗

is true for us spiritually. When we come to Christ, we are born again—that is, God our Heavenly Father works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit to give us new life as His children (John 3:1–17). But we aren’t meant to remain spiritual infants, weak and vulnerable to every temptation or doubt or falsehood or fear. God’s will is for us to grow strong in our faith and become spiritually mature, grounded in the truth of His Word and firmly committed to doing His will. The Bible says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).

Giving your life to Christ is an essential first step—but it is only the first step. God’s will is for you to become spiritually mature, growing stronger in your relationship to Christ and your service for Him. But this takes both time and effort. Conversion is the work of an instant; spiritual maturity is the work of a lifetime. It is a journey with many steps, and it should be everyone’s main goal in life. Is it yours?

BECOMING MORE LIKE HIM

What is spiritual maturity? To put it another way, what does God want to do in our lives? What does He want to do in your life?

The Bible’s answer can be put in one sentence: God’s will is for us to become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to change us from within, taking away everything that dishonors Him and replacing it with Christ’s love and purity. From all eternity God’s plan was that we would be “conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). This is spiritual maturity: to become more and more like Christ in our “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

Will we ever reach this goal? No, not completely in this life— but someday we will enter God’s presence forever, and then we will be totally free from sin’s grip. Then “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

So what about the present? Does this mean it is hopeless to strive for spiritual maturity? No! God wants to begin changing us from within and making us more like Christ right now. In Heaven that process will be complete; sin’s power over us will be destroyed, and we will inherit that Heavenly home Christ has prepared for us. Do you want to know what God’s will is for you? It is simply this: to become more like Christ. Do others see Christ in you?

DEVELOPING A ROOT SYSTEM

How can we develop a faith that will be strong enough to see us through the whole of our lives, including the uncertainties and challenges of old age?

The key is this: God wants us to be spiritually strong and has provided us with every resource we need. In ourselves we are weak, so if we try to meet life’s struggles and temptations on our own, we fail. We need God’s strength to face life’s challenges— and He wants to give it to us. He will strengthen us in faith as we make use of the resources He has given us; He will develop a root system within us that grabs hold of surety. As Peter reminded us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Tragically, many Christians never discover this. They have committed their lives to Christ . . . they may be active in their churches . . . they pray and read their Bibles on occasion—but they remain spiritually immature and weak in the face of life’s temptations and setbacks. The Bible warns us about the danger of remaining spiritual infants “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).

We may be old in years, but if our faith is immature, we will enter those latter years fearful and unprepared. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Just as a baby needs food and exercise in order to grow, so we need the spiritual food and exercise God has provided for us. Without them our faith is weak, but with them spiritual strength increases, and we are better prepared for whatever life has in store for us.

How do we grow strong in our faith? What spiritual resources has God given us to make this happen? In the next few pages I would like to examine five of these gifts.

The Gift of God’s Word

Some years ago Ruth was visiting one of our daughters, and she decided to build a rudimentary zip line for the grandchildren. Always adventurous, she secured a sturdy wire at an angle between two trees. To test it she climbed the tree at the taller end, grabbed the handle (made from a piece of pipe), and started down the inclined wire.

But the wire broke, hurtling her to the ground some fifteen feet below. She broke several bones, crushed a vertebra, and suffered a severe brain concussion that left her in a coma for a week. As she slowly recovered, she realized that large blocks of her memory were missing—including all the Bible verses she had memorized since childhood. “That was the worst part,” she said later. “The Bible meant so much to me and had guided me all my life, and now I couldn’t even remember a single verse. It was devastating.” I understood her heartache; I would have felt the same way in her place. Thankfully, over time her memory largely returned, including—little by little—the Bible verses she had learned over the years.

Why was the Bible so important to her? And why should it be important to us? The reason is simple: the