How Is Our Personal Journey to the Kingdom Coming Along?

When we take a look at our lives, we should ask ourselves: Have I grown in my journey to the Kingdom, or am I just getting older? How can we track our growth?

“Are we going through life, or are we growing through life?”

I once heard that question asked by a popular leadership coach and writer. As Christians, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves the same question?

At the end of each day do we ask ourselves: “Have I grown in godliness? Have I become more like Jesus Christ and His Father?” 

Colossians 1:10 tells us to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

Galatians 5 defines the fruit we need to bear: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Are we growing and bearing that fruit each and every day? Peter exhorts us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Are we doing this every day?

Make a chart

To help me see where I needed to make progress, I made a chart asking questions about things that I knew I needed to grow in. Then I used the chart to track my progress. (There are probably different apps that will allow you to do this digitally, if you prefer.)

If you decide to make one, you might want to ask yourself hard questions that may be difficult to answer. (It may be very enlightening if you are truthful with yourself.) Sometimes we find we’ve made progress and other times we realize we still have a long way to go.

Questions to ask

Here are some examples of questions we can regularly ask ourselves to monitor our growth:

• Did I get impatient with family members or anyone else today?
• Did I keep my cool when someone said something I didn’t like, or did I get angry and say something that I regret?
• Did I argue with anyone today and try to be the one who is always right?  
• Did inappropriate language come out of my mouth when something didn’t go my way?
• Did I practice patience on the road—and even pray for patience while driving?
• Am I regularly respecting members of my family (or others I come in contact with) by regularly making positive and uplifting comments?
• Do I speak in a kind and gentle manner?
• Am I regularly being a “light” of God’s way of life to everyone I come in contact with?
• Do I listen more than I talk?

These are just examples. You can add anything else to the list that you know you need to work on.

Ask God for help

Because Satan is always trying to wield his influence over us (1 Peter 5:8), we need God to lead and guide us and help us bear the fruit He wants to see in us. We also should be asking Him to help us see ourselves as He and others see us. It can be humbling when we see what He shows us—but we will know what we need to work on!

When we find areas of life that we need to improve, we take these words seriously: “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25).  

Continue to grow

Our journey through this life is one of endurance and growth. If we are not enduring, then we are not growing. James tells us we are blessed if we endure and persevere (James 5:11).

Our journey has everything to do with how we treat our family members, brethren and everyone else we encounter in life. This is one way we can fulfill the words we read in Hebrews 12:14: “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”