My Responsibility

Challenge 8 focuses on developing a growth mentality, the final component of Tier II (Becoming Like Jesus – Character Transformation). Part A viewed responsibility through a covenantal lens. Part B linked growth to a lifestyle of continuing repentance, always revising our mental maps to align with God’s truth. Part C listed four biblical warnings which sabotage spiritual growth. Part D links growth to this simple principle: “Every disciple is responsible for their own spiritual growth.” 

This principle is closely related to each of the previous parts of Challenge 8, especially part A, “Accept Responsibility.” Now we will consider it more closely. First, we must clarify what this principle does not mean. Taking responsibility for our own spiritual growth is not a subtle expression of self-reliance. Rather it is an expression of growing faith in the context of a supportive community (see Challenge 6, “Better Together”). We need sisters and brothers to become like Jesus. We need wise mentors, insightful teachers, friends who encourage us by their words and example, and we need accountability. Disciples are both mutually dependent upon each other and mutually accountable to one another. We cannot do it alone because we are created in the image of our Trinitarian God. The Holy Spirit plays the leading role in helping each of us take responsibility for our own spiritual growth. But the truth remains the same: no one else can assume responsibility for how we respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one else can take responsibility for our decisions, priorities, faith, or the condition of our hearts. It’s counterproductive to blame God, parents, or others if we do not flourish spiritually. We must take ultimate responsibility for our own spiritual growth.

Every disciple must deal with adversity, failure, and setbacks. At some point, most of us will realize we have become stuck spiritually. This is often the primary symptom of spiritual complacency, taking Jesus for granted. When this happens, God’s amazing grace no longer seems amazing. Your sense of wonder, joy and the fear of the Lord dissipates. Attending worship, small group meetings or Bible studies become burdensome. Your spiritual routines feel like empty ruts instead of grooves flowing with God’s grace and spiritual nourishment. Life feels burdensome, heavy, joyless, and dutiful. For me, losing my sense of gratitude signals something is wrong in me. 

Spiritual complacency does not mean you have rejected Jesus. You still believe the essentials of faith, but it feels and tastes like stale bread, no longer appetizing. Your faith was once a living faith, but it now feels flat and lifeless. At first you don’t even realize what is happening. And when you become aware of it, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. You’re more bored than rebellious. After all, it’s not a big deal to grab a little more shuteye instead of getting up to spend time with Jesus. You know he’ll still be there tomorrow. 

Disciples in the first-century church must have faced these types of problems, too. If not, why would the author of Hebrews write this: 

¹² Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
Hebrews 6:12

“Spiritually dull and indifferent” is a description of disciples who have become complacent or stuck spiritually. Complacency happens, maybe for all of us, at one time or another. But usually, our complacency is the result of a process that occurred gradually over many months or years. 

When this happens, the first step is to recognize and own it. The second step is confess your complacency and ask the Spirit to help you renew and recapture your first love. Maybe it is linked to depression. If so, perhaps you need to pursue professional help. Regardless of the root cause of the complacency, it is important to tell another disciple about your current spiritual condition and ask for their prayers, encouragement, and counsel. Do not blame your complacency on others. 

Spiritual Self-Evaluations 

The earlier you identify what is happening the better. This challenge, “Growth Mentality,” requires you to be vigilant about your own spiritual health. Wisdom requires you to take your own spiritual pulse from time to time and to perform routine self-evaluations. Pushing the cruise control button in your relationship with the Lord is dangerous. Make taking an inventory of your spiritual health part of your routine several times every year.

This is like steps four and ten in Alcoholics Anonymous:

• “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves” (Step 4) and

• “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it” (Step 10). 

These two steps are similar and reflect biblical truths. When alcoholics work the steps faithfully, they find hope, help, and in many cases, healing. They do this in a supportive and encouraging community, but still every individual must take responsibility to work the steps before the steps can work for them. 

Two passages penned by the Apostle Paul sound like steps 4 and 10 of Alcoholics Anonymous. They support Part D of Challenge 8 called “Self-Awareness”:

³ Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
Romans 12:3

⁵ Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.
2 Corinthians 13:5

Developing and maintaining a healthy growth mentality requires disciples to examine ourselves critically and honestly. Or to use the language of Alcoholics Anonymous, we need to make “a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves” and do it repeatedly. Genuine courage is needed to be honest with ourselves as well as with others (See 7 B, “Life in a Fishbowl”). We need to learn the truth about ourselves. Self-examination requires time and effort and leads to growth, but failure to make the effort leads to complacency. 

As I write this, the last section in Part C (“Warnings”) is still ringing in my ears. I declared that hypocrisy is banned in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was an unrelenting critic of the hypocrisy practiced by the religious leaders. I think it is accurate to say Jesus hated hypocrisy and cut hypocrites no slack. But, since then and now, I have realized I have been hypocritical. Challenge 8 D calls for self-awareness. But, since writing the first three parts, the Spirit has revealed my own spiritual complacency. I had not recognized my hypocrisy until I started to write about self-awareness. I realized I had lost my attitude of gratitude and life felt burdensome. Something was wrong. I asked God to show me my error, and consulted with my wife, Ellie. The next day I realized where I lost my way. I was no longer trusting God to lead me as I wrote. Instead, I was putting pressure on myself to continue writing the TJW relying on myself, instead of Jesus. I confessed it to the Lord and asked him to lead me and promised him I would follow him. The writing began to flow again. I felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I was flooded with gratitude, hope, and joy. My misery was the product of a subtle shift from depending on the Lord to self-reliance. But I had not recognized this until now because of my lack of self-awareness. 

The main defense against becoming hypocrites is developing self-awareness through frequent and honest self-evaluation. Covenantal relationships require that we make promises and keep them. To do that, we must know ourselves, including our weaknesses, well. 

Ownership

Once, at a pastor’s conference, one of the speakers shared a story about the church he served. Attendance in this church had plateaued and it was no longer a growing congregation. Alarmed, the church leadership developed a survey to determine whether their members had also plateaued spiritually. The results indicated a substantial percentage of members felt spiritually stuck, complacent, and were not growing. Then, going deeper through personal interviews, another pattern emerged. A large majority of those members who identified themselves as spiritually stuck (not growing), blamed it on the preaching and teaching they were receiving or the failure of church programing. Not one person acknowledged their failure to pursue growth. Instead, they blamed their complacency on others. There are consequences when disciples refuse to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth.

Pastors, priests, and church leaders need to be accountable for their preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and leadership responsibilities. They carry a weighty responsibility for feeding their flock by faithfully teaching and preaching biblical truths. But they cannot take responsibility for how people respond. They cannot take responsibility for your attitudes and actions, just as you cannot take responsibility for their attitudes and actions. We need others to help us, but we must own the results. Each of us must take personal responsibility before God for our own spiritual growth, which requires self-awareness. Frequent and honest spiritual self-evaluations are important. 

THINKING IT THROUGH

The way of the LORD is a stronghold to those with integrity, but it destroys the wicked. Proverbs 10:20

THE TRUTH: Becoming like Jesus is a life-long process of growth and change. 

THE CHALLENGE: Disciples continually nurture a growth mentality. 

The Scriptures and questions are for group discussion and personal reflection. Our goal in Tier II is character transformation which requires sustained effort and growing faith.

Related Scriptures

Psalm 139:23-24 [A prayer]
²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Psalm 76:35-37
³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their rock,
that God Most High was their redeemer.
³⁶ But all they gave him was lip service;
they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They did not keep his covenant.

Psalm 119:1-6
¹ Joyful are people of integrity,
who follow the instructions of the Lord.
² Joyful are those who obey his laws
and search for him with all their hearts.
³ They do not compromise with evil,
and they walk only in his paths.
⁴ You have charged us
to keep your commandments carefully.
⁵ Oh, that my actions would consistently
reflect your decrees!
⁶ Then I will not be ashamed
when I compare my life with your commands.

Colossians 3:10 ¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

James 1:22-27 ²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

²⁶ If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. ²⁷ Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Matthew 23:25-26 ²⁵ For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! ²⁶ You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

Romans 12:3 ³ Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than your really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 

Matthew 11:20 ²⁰ Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God.

Acts 20:21 ²¹ I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.

Ephesians 4:23 ²³ Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Questions

These questions are designed to help you understand part 8 D at a deeper level. You are encouraged to focus on the questions that you find most interesting or helpful. This is not a test, but a tool to help you work the content of the part. It is useful for both group discussion and personal reflection. (Please write your responses in a journal or notebook.)

1. List at least three questions you should ask yourself when performing an intentional personal self-evaluation. 

2. Decide who would be a good person to share your evaluation with (how you answered the questions you listed above) and then ask for their feedback

3. If someone asked for your advice on how they should do a self-assessment, how would you answer?

4. If you are reluctant to do a self-evaluation, explain why. 

5. Covenantal relationships require telling the truth, making and keeping promises, and being honest with yourself. Write why self-honesty is important and/or why it is difficult.

6. How could regularly writing in a journal be helpful in developing self-awareness?

7. Since this is the last part in the second tier, “Becoming like Jesus,” it would be appropriate to ask yourself, “How have I become more like Jesus since starting the TJW?” If you haven’t grown more like Jesus, explain “Why haven’t I become more like Jesus?”

8. What is one lie you have told yourself about yourself?

9. Describe a time in your spiritual journey that you became complacent or felt stuck spiritually. 

10. When I lose my sense of gratitude and/or life begins to feel burdensome, is like a warning light that comes on in my car, indicating there is a problem that needs my attention. What warning signs can you identify that may signal you are becoming complacent or stuck spiritually? 

11. C. S. Lewis said humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Reflect and write about how we can be self-aware without becoming self-centered.

Completing the Challenge

1. UNDERSTAND.

Prayerfully process (think, read, discuss, question, write) until you understand the most important truth Jesus is teaching you in Challenge 8. 

Reread “THE TRUTH” and “THE CHALLENGE” statements that are printed below the “THINKING IT THROUGH” section header. It may also be helpful to read the related scriptures, and what you have already written in your journal when reading and processing parts A through C of this challenge. As always, you may consult a mentor, other disciples or a study partner, or use other resources. But do not move on to #2 (BELIEVE) until you have articulated the chief truth revealed to you in this challenge by completing this sentence, 

“The chief truth revealed in this challenge is ....”

2. BELIEVE.

Embracing the truth requires you to “change your mind” by ceasing to believe one thing (a lie) in order to believe the truth. To follow Jesus means you must continually repent (literally: “change your mind”—your mental map of reality) to personally embrace the truth he embodied and taught. The goal is to internalize the truth in your heart until it becomes like your DNA—what makes you, you.

Write the thing you no longer believe (the lie) by completing this sentence,
“I no longer believe ….”

Rewrite the new truth you now believe (from “1. UNDERSTAND.” above) by completing this sentence, 
“I now believe ....” 

3. DO.

Jesus expects the truth you now believe to change the way you live. What you believe determines what you do and how you live. Commit to do something differently (be specific) because of your new and/or deepening faith. Write it by finishing this sentence,
“I believe Jesus is leading me to ....”  

Then pray, asking the Lord to help you do whatever you have determined he is asking you to do. 

4. SHARE.

Finally, tell a mentor or study partner the specifics of how you have worked this challenge (the sentences you have written) and ask for their feedback.

REMEMBER: All of the Tier II Challenges emphasize the necessity of ongoing spiritual growth in order to continually grow more and more like Jesus. These challenges (5-8) focus on character transformation, which occurs slowly over a period of years, as you diligently seek spiritual maturity. 

It is best to write your statements at the end of each challenge in your journal/notebook. If you get stuck on this last exercise, skip it for the time being, and complete it at a later date. As you make progress on the Jesus Way, you may want to modify and improve these concluding statements. Feel free to do so at any time. Whenever you receive new insights, it may change what you have previously written. Your journal/notebook is intended to document your growing faith; it will become a useful tool to help you, and also to mentor others.

Copyright © 2024 Don Waite

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