LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
Scripture encourages us to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. It was the Apostle Peter who exhorted his fellow believers to continue growing in this way. (2 Peter 3 v18). The Apostle Paul addressed the Colossians in like fashion, encouraging them to "increase in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1, v.10) It has been well said that if something or someone isn’t growing in some way, then they are dying instead. It is no wonder that we must grow in grace because it helps us to keep pace with the accusations and condemnation directed at us by our spiritual adversary and even by ourselves sometimes, as the spiritual warfare escalates in these times.
Growing in knowledge of God will be evidenced by new life in our prayers, and in our witness, and in our study of Scripture. If our prayers and praise are always the same it’s an indication that we aren’t growing and something is wrong, our relationship has grown stagnant. We delight to learn new praise songs or hymns, though we still enjoy singing the familiar ones. There is always a certain amount of sameness and predictability in prayer and praise that serves as a foundation for the extensions and expansions that the Holy Spirit wants to bring. Prayer is intended to be a journey, not a static or stagnant position. We can always be making new inroads into new or at least slightly new territories. Thus, for example, we find ourselves praying for different countries than we’ve prayed for before, or praying in new ways for those countries that we have already supported in prayer. The same would hold true for people including ourselves, elected leaders and officials, public servants, or ministries, or areas of public life, etc. We might find ourselves praying for someone we haven't even thought of in twenty years or so. That is because there may be an urgent need in that life at that very moment and God has granted us the privilege of interceeding for them. If we pray in other tongues we may find ourselves praying in languages that are completly new to us or with combinations of syllables we've never used before.
So too with the Word we need to be continually adding to what we know, building onto it, (it's true as has been said that new knowledge attaches to older knowledge already acquired) not merely rehearsing or reiterating the same old lessons, valuable as they were and continue to be, but now for a different reason, as a connecting point for new illumination. We are shown more by the Spirit of God, though, only as we move out and apply what we already have and understand.
These disciplines never need to grow or to remain stale, there can always be a freshness about them, yes sometimes more than others, but God desires and will provide this constant ongoing freshness in our walk and life with Him if we make it our priority to seek Him for it.