Making Progress

While on a hard training ride the other day, I noticed how focused I was on my goal of getting a personal best on this particular course. I kept checking my cadence, heart-rate monitor, speed and perceived exertion, and I even noticed I was making ground on the cyclist ahead of me.

This ride and my focus made me ask myself two questions about my spiritual life:

1. Do I spend as much time making sure I am on track with my Christian life?
2. What marks do I use to assess where I am?

Thankfully, the Bible gives us very tangible assessments as to where we are in our walk with Christ. We can see the fruit of our relationship with Christ based on how we are treating others, both those we have relationships with (friends, children, spouse, parents, coworkers, neighbors, etc.), as well as those we pass by daily (other drivers, store clerks, etc.).

We also can gauge our spiritual maturity by how we handle unexpected life circumstances such as running late, illnesses, injuries, and the general situations in which things don’t go our way. More enlightening circumstances come through how we spend our time and our money. There are many ways that we can examine our spiritual lives.

Just like my heart rate monitor and bike computer help me assess my progress toward my athletic goals, we can check our progress in living a Christian life based on tools found in the Bible. God is good, isn't He? He sets clear standards and gives us ways to check our progress. Let’s put them to good use and discover how to get even closer to Him today.