WEBSITE DETAILS
Article Title:
How Do I Know If I’m Growing in My Faith?
URL Slug:
how-do-i-know-if-im-growing-in-my-faith
SEO Title:
How Do I Know If I’m Growing in My Faith? | The Orchard Church
Meta Description:
Spiritual growth isn’t about trying harder or doing more. Discover how connection to Jesus, connection to His church, serving, and generosity help us grow in faith.
Article Excerpt:
How do you know if you’re really growing spiritually? Colossians 2 points us away from striving and toward a life rooted in Jesus, where spiritual growth flows from connection rather than performance.
Category:
Faith
Tags:
spiritual growth, faith, Jesus, Colossians, Christian life
Featured Image Idea:
A close-up of a Honeycrisp apple growing on a healthy tree, with visible branches and leaves, communicating the connection between the branch and the source of its fruit.
Image Filename:
spiritual-growth-honeycrisp-apple-tree.jpg
Image Alt Text:
Honeycrisp apple growing on a healthy tree, illustrating spiritual growth through connection to Jesus.
ARTICLE
How Do I Know If I’m Growing in My Faith?
How do you know if you’re actually growing in your faith?
It’s an important question. Maybe you attend church regularly. You read the Bible. You listen to podcasts, read books, pray, and try to become a better person. But sometimes, underneath all that activity, you wonder:
Am I really becoming more like Jesus?
There’s a difference between being busy with spiritual things and actually growing spiritually.
The answer may be simpler than we think.
Spiritual Growth Begins With Connection
Consider the Honeycrisp apple.
Every Honeycrisp apple we eat traces back to one original tree in Minnesota. That’s because planting a Honeycrisp seed doesn’t produce another Honeycrisp. To reproduce the fruit, growers take a branch from the original tree and graft it onto another tree.
The branch is cut and attached to living tissue on the new tree. If the two layers connect, the branch becomes part of the tree. It receives what it needs, grows, and eventually produces fruit.
But if the connection never happens, something interesting takes place.
You might not know immediately.
The branch may still be green. It may have leaves. From the ground, it can look just like every other branch on the tree.
But eventually, it stops growing.
It wasn't a bad branch. It simply wasn't connected to the thing that was keeping it alive.
That picture helps us understand something important about following Jesus:
Growth is not something living things achieve. It’s something connection produces.
A branch doesn't manufacture apples. It doesn't earn them. It doesn't work harder to produce fruit.
It stays connected to a tree that already has everything it needs.
And fruit grows naturally from that connection.
Paul gives us the same picture for our spiritual lives.
Are You Growing—or Just Staying Busy?
In Colossians 2, Paul writes:
“Just as you accepted Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
—Colossians 2:6–7
Paul gives us three pictures: roots, growth, and fruit.
If roots grow down into Jesus, growth follows.
That means when we don't see much spiritual growth in our lives, the first question isn't necessarily, What am I doing wrong?
It may be:
Am I connected to Jesus?
That’s an important distinction because we can easily confuse spiritual activity with spiritual growth.
We can attend church without becoming more like Jesus.
We can read the Bible without becoming more like Jesus.
We can listen to Christian podcasts, read Christian books, and participate in Christian activities without actually becoming more like Jesus.
Knowledge matters. Scripture matters. Spiritual disciplines matter.
But the goal isn't simply to know more about Jesus.
The goal is to become more like Jesus.
And those two things don't always grow at the same rate.
Jesus Plus Nothing
The church in Colossae had a problem that may sound familiar.
They hadn't walked away from Jesus. They believed. They gathered together. They loved Jesus and the church.
But they were beginning to believe that Jesus wasn't quite enough.
They were tempted to add something else to what Jesus had already done.
It can sound like this:
Jesus + religious rules = acceptable.
Or:
Jesus + my effort = spiritual maturity.
Or:
Jesus + the right spiritual experiences = I'm doing better than other Christians.
It's always:
Jesus plus something.
And if we're honest, many of us quietly operate this way.
When we ask ourselves, How am I doing spiritually?, we may immediately start keeping score.
How am I doing with my sin?
How often did I read my Bible?
How often did I pray?
How well did I behave?
We keep a spiritual star chart in our heads and add everything up to determine our spiritual grade.
But what is our spiritual goodness actually based on?
The work Jesus has done—or the work we're doing?
Paul warns the Colossians:
“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Jesus.”
—Colossians 2:8
This isn't only a Christian problem. It's a human problem.
We naturally want a formula that tells us how to become acceptable.
We can put God in the blank.
We can put the universe, karma, energy, morality, or our own goodness in the blank.
But the formula remains the same:
Something + my effort = acceptable.
Paul dismantles that way of thinking because the Christian message isn't Jesus plus something.
It's:
Jesus. Period.
You Are Already Accepted
Paul continues:
“For in Jesus lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Jesus, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
—Colossians 2:9–10
Notice what Paul says.
In Jesus, we are complete.
Not when we finally get our lives together.
Not when we stop struggling.
Not when we've read the whole Bible.
Not when we finally become the Christian we think we're supposed to be.
In Jesus, we are complete.
Paul goes on to say:
“You were dead because of your sins... Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all your sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
—Colossians 2:13–14
He forgave all your sins.
All of them.
The record has been canceled.
This changes everything.
There are two very different ways we can approach our faith.
Jesus plus my effort will make me acceptable.
Or:
Because of what Jesus did, I am accepted.
I am forgiven.
I am made alive.
I belong to God.
The difference is profound.
When I believe my activity determines my identity, my activity becomes the thing holding my faith together.
But when I understand that my identity is established in Jesus, my identity directs my activity.
I don't obey Jesus so that He will love me.
I follow Jesus because He already loves me.
Stop Working For Acceptance and Start Living From It
Think about a child who comes downstairs in the morning.
Imagine that child hearing:
“You are the most loved girl in the world. There is nothing you can do today that will make Daddy love you more, and there is nothing you can do today that will make Daddy love you less.”
That child walks out the door already accepted.
She doesn't have to spend the day trying to earn her father's approval.
Now imagine another child who thinks:
I know Dad loves me, but I don't know if he's good with me. I've got to get everything right today for him to be happy with me.
That child walks out the door looking for approval through achievement and effort.
Both children live a full day.
But one is working for acceptance.
The other is living from acceptance.
Spiritually, many of us live like the first child.
We believe our behavior makes God love us more or less.
But we can't get everything right. None of us can live perfectly.
Eventually, that way of living produces one of two things: perpetual guilt or exhaustion.
Some people spend years white-knuckling their faith—trying harder, cleaning up, failing, gritting their teeth, and wondering why nothing ever changes.
The answer isn't that they didn't try hard enough.
Conforming was never the thing that transforms.
Striving and effort aren't God's formula for spiritual life.
There is freedom in knowing that God doesn't love you because you performed well this week.
He loves you because you belong to Him.
So what would God have you know?
I love you.
There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more.
There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less.
You are bought with the blood of His Son.
And you are His.
Now walk in freedom and purpose.
Following Jesus Requires Staying Connected
If you've never said yes to Jesus, hear this clearly:
You do not have to fix your life first.
Jesus didn't come for people who already had everything together. He came for people who don't—which includes all of us.
There is no test you have to pass.
There is no version of Christianity where you earn your way in.
Jesus has already done the work.
Paul says, “You accepted Jesus as your Lord... so now continue to follow him.”
You've come to Jesus.
Now follow Him.
But there's something about following that we don't always think about:
You cannot follow someone you're disconnected from.
Before GPS, maybe you followed a friend across town to a restaurant you'd never been to. They made it through the yellow light, but you didn't.
Suddenly, you're not following anymore.
You're just driving around.
That can happen spiritually, too.
We're still moving.
We're still busy.
We're still religious.
But somewhere along the way, we got too far behind the One we were trying to follow.
When that happens, our instinct is often to work harder.
But Paul changes the question.
It isn't simply:
How hard am I working?
It's:
What is keeping me connected to Jesus?
Paul writes:
“They are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.”
—Colossians 2:19
Again, the diagnosis is connection.
Growth comes from connection to Jesus.
And growth happens in a body.
You Were Made to Grow With Other People
Paul doesn't describe Christians as isolated individuals who grow independently.
He describes a body.
And a body grows together.
That's why gathering with other believers matters.
Another passage of Scripture tells Christians not to give up meeting together. God isn't needy about our attendance. He knows how we're designed.
We were designed for connection.
Christianity was never meant to be a solo endeavor.
You can listen to a sermon by yourself. You can read your Bible by yourself. You can pray by yourself.
But there are parts of Christian growth that happen when we live in relationship with other people.
A Sunday service is important, but connection requires more than sitting in a row.
A branch can sit beside a tree its entire life and never actually be connected to it.
So ask yourself:
Am I actually attached to anybody here?
Not simply, Do I attend?
Attendance is not connection.
Three Ways to Move From Casual to Committed
At The Orchard, we don't have membership.
That's intentional.
There is no membership form, vote, badge, or card.
But there is a path from casual to committed.
And these steps aren't ways to earn God's acceptance. They aren't things we do so Jesus will love us more.
They are ways we prioritize the kind of connection and participation that Paul describes.
1. Connect
Connection to the church helps us thrive, grow, and remain connected to Jesus.
There are two clear ways to connect at The Orchard.
Community Groups are where connection in the body becomes personal.
When difficult seasons came, including infertility and challenges in marriage, community group wasn't simply another church activity. These were people who prayed, cried, and walked through life together.
That kind of relationship doesn't happen simply by sitting in a row on Sunday.
Impact Groups provide another opportunity to grow.
These groups offer one subject, one group, and one season, led by mature believers who want to grow in knowledge, faith, and passion.
There are opportunities to study Acts, explore Ephesians, learn about apologetics, and grow in prayer.
Choose one and take the step.
2. Serve
A body part that stops functioning as it was designed to function will atrophy.
After completely tearing a pectoral muscle from the bone during jiu-jitsu, months of recovery followed. The arm was immobilized, and the entire right arm atrophied.
The lesson is simple:
When a part of the body stops functioning, it diminishes.
The same principle can apply to our spiritual lives.
God has given each of us gifts, abilities, experiences, and opportunities to contribute.
When we don't use what God has given us, we miss part of what He designed us to do.
There are opportunities to serve with Orchard Kids, Youth Group, Sunday gatherings, Community Groups, and behind the scenes.
Maybe you're outgoing and love meeting people.
Maybe you're quiet and prefer organizing.
Maybe you want to teach.
Maybe you'd rather make coffee, greet someone at the door, help with students, or support something behind the scenes.
There is a place for you. Find it. Serve.
3. Give
The Orchard doesn't pass a plate during the service, but the church is sustained by the generosity of people who believe in what God is doing.
That generosity supports the church's ministry, missionaries, churches around the world, and people in need in the local community.
If you're new, visiting, or exploring faith, this isn't an expectation being placed on you.
But if The Orchard is your home—if you're saying, I'm not casual; I'm committed—consider becoming a monthly giver.
Giving isn't about earning God's approval.
What you give is between you and God.
But committed generosity helps make the mission possible.
Connect. Serve. Give.
These aren't ways to earn God's love.
They're ways to live out a life that has already received it.
Jesus Above All
Everything comes back to the same place.
Jesus above all.
Jesus is the head of the church.
He's the reason we connect.
He's the One we're serving.
He's the One we're giving to.
He's the One we're living for.
Jesus. Period.
If you haven't yet placed your faith in Jesus, begin there.
You don't need to clean yourself up first.
Receive what you could never earn.
And if you've already come to Jesus, keep following Him.
Let your roots grow down into Him.
Let your life be built on Him.
Let your connection with Jesus produce the growth you could never manufacture on your own.
How do I know if I'm growing spiritually?
Look beyond activity and ask whether you're becoming more like Jesus.
Spiritual growth isn't simply about how much information you know or how many Christian activities you participate in. Look for the fruit that comes from being connected to Jesus.
Do I have to work harder to become acceptable to God?
No. The message of Colossians is that our acceptance is rooted in what Jesus has already done. We don't work for God's acceptance; we learn to live from it.
Why does being connected to other Christians matter?
Because God designed His people as a body. Spiritual growth happens not only through our personal connection with Jesus but also through meaningful connection with other believers.
Stay Connected to the Source
A Honeycrisp branch doesn't produce Honeycrisp apples by trying harder.
It produces fruit because it is connected to the tree.
That's the invitation for us.
Don't measure your spiritual life only by how busy you are.
Don't confuse attendance with connection.
Don't turn Christianity into a formula where Jesus does His part and you have to do enough to finish the job.
Instead, stay connected to Jesus.
Let your roots grow down into Him.
Build your life on Him.
Connect with His people.
Find a place to serve.
Practice generosity.
And trust that the God who made you alive in Christ is the One who produces growth in you.
Growth comes from connection to Jesus.
And growth happens in a body.
Jesus above all.
This article was adapted from a message at The Orchard Church in Carbondale, Colorado.
Explore more messages and resources from The Orchard Church at https://theorchardlife.com/media.
Article Title:
How Do I Know If I’m Growing in My Faith?
URL Slug:
how-do-i-know-if-im-growing-in-my-faith
SEO Title:
How Do I Know If I’m Growing in My Faith? | The Orchard Church
Meta Description:
Spiritual growth isn’t about trying harder or doing more. Discover how connection to Jesus, connection to His church, serving, and generosity help us grow in faith.
Article Excerpt:
How do you know if you’re really growing spiritually? Colossians 2 points us away from striving and toward a life rooted in Jesus, where spiritual growth flows from connection rather than performance.
Category:
Faith
Tags:
spiritual growth, faith, Jesus, Colossians, Christian life
Featured Image Idea:
A close-up of a Honeycrisp apple growing on a healthy tree, with visible branches and leaves, communicating the connection between the branch and the source of its fruit.
Image Filename:
spiritual-growth-honeycrisp-apple-tree.jpg
Image Alt Text:
Honeycrisp apple growing on a healthy tree, illustrating spiritual growth through connection to Jesus.
ARTICLE
How Do I Know If I’m Growing in My Faith?
How do you know if you’re actually growing in your faith?
It’s an important question. Maybe you attend church regularly. You read the Bible. You listen to podcasts, read books, pray, and try to become a better person. But sometimes, underneath all that activity, you wonder:
Am I really becoming more like Jesus?
There’s a difference between being busy with spiritual things and actually growing spiritually.
The answer may be simpler than we think.
Spiritual Growth Begins With Connection
Consider the Honeycrisp apple.
Every Honeycrisp apple we eat traces back to one original tree in Minnesota. That’s because planting a Honeycrisp seed doesn’t produce another Honeycrisp. To reproduce the fruit, growers take a branch from the original tree and graft it onto another tree.
The branch is cut and attached to living tissue on the new tree. If the two layers connect, the branch becomes part of the tree. It receives what it needs, grows, and eventually produces fruit.
But if the connection never happens, something interesting takes place.
You might not know immediately.
The branch may still be green. It may have leaves. From the ground, it can look just like every other branch on the tree.
But eventually, it stops growing.
It wasn't a bad branch. It simply wasn't connected to the thing that was keeping it alive.
That picture helps us understand something important about following Jesus:
Growth is not something living things achieve. It’s something connection produces.
A branch doesn't manufacture apples. It doesn't earn them. It doesn't work harder to produce fruit.
It stays connected to a tree that already has everything it needs.
And fruit grows naturally from that connection.
Paul gives us the same picture for our spiritual lives.
Are You Growing—or Just Staying Busy?
In Colossians 2, Paul writes:
“Just as you accepted Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
—Colossians 2:6–7
Paul gives us three pictures: roots, growth, and fruit.
If roots grow down into Jesus, growth follows.
That means when we don't see much spiritual growth in our lives, the first question isn't necessarily, What am I doing wrong?
It may be:
Am I connected to Jesus?
That’s an important distinction because we can easily confuse spiritual activity with spiritual growth.
We can attend church without becoming more like Jesus.
We can read the Bible without becoming more like Jesus.
We can listen to Christian podcasts, read Christian books, and participate in Christian activities without actually becoming more like Jesus.
Knowledge matters. Scripture matters. Spiritual disciplines matter.
But the goal isn't simply to know more about Jesus.
The goal is to become more like Jesus.
And those two things don't always grow at the same rate.
Jesus Plus Nothing
The church in Colossae had a problem that may sound familiar.
They hadn't walked away from Jesus. They believed. They gathered together. They loved Jesus and the church.
But they were beginning to believe that Jesus wasn't quite enough.
They were tempted to add something else to what Jesus had already done.
It can sound like this:
Jesus + religious rules = acceptable.
Or:
Jesus + my effort = spiritual maturity.
Or:
Jesus + the right spiritual experiences = I'm doing better than other Christians.
It's always:
Jesus plus something.
And if we're honest, many of us quietly operate this way.
When we ask ourselves, How am I doing spiritually?, we may immediately start keeping score.
How am I doing with my sin?
How often did I read my Bible?
How often did I pray?
How well did I behave?
We keep a spiritual star chart in our heads and add everything up to determine our spiritual grade.
But what is our spiritual goodness actually based on?
The work Jesus has done—or the work we're doing?
Paul warns the Colossians:
“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Jesus.”
—Colossians 2:8
This isn't only a Christian problem. It's a human problem.
We naturally want a formula that tells us how to become acceptable.
We can put God in the blank.
We can put the universe, karma, energy, morality, or our own goodness in the blank.
But the formula remains the same:
Something + my effort = acceptable.
Paul dismantles that way of thinking because the Christian message isn't Jesus plus something.
It's:
Jesus. Period.
You Are Already Accepted
Paul continues:
“For in Jesus lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Jesus, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
—Colossians 2:9–10
Notice what Paul says.
In Jesus, we are complete.
Not when we finally get our lives together.
Not when we stop struggling.
Not when we've read the whole Bible.
Not when we finally become the Christian we think we're supposed to be.
In Jesus, we are complete.
Paul goes on to say:
“You were dead because of your sins... Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all your sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
—Colossians 2:13–14
He forgave all your sins.
All of them.
The record has been canceled.
This changes everything.
There are two very different ways we can approach our faith.
Jesus plus my effort will make me acceptable.
Or:
Because of what Jesus did, I am accepted.
I am forgiven.
I am made alive.
I belong to God.
The difference is profound.
When I believe my activity determines my identity, my activity becomes the thing holding my faith together.
But when I understand that my identity is established in Jesus, my identity directs my activity.
I don't obey Jesus so that He will love me.
I follow Jesus because He already loves me.
Stop Working For Acceptance and Start Living From It
Think about a child who comes downstairs in the morning.
Imagine that child hearing:
“You are the most loved girl in the world. There is nothing you can do today that will make Daddy love you more, and there is nothing you can do today that will make Daddy love you less.”
That child walks out the door already accepted.
She doesn't have to spend the day trying to earn her father's approval.
Now imagine another child who thinks:
I know Dad loves me, but I don't know if he's good with me. I've got to get everything right today for him to be happy with me.
That child walks out the door looking for approval through achievement and effort.
Both children live a full day.
But one is working for acceptance.
The other is living from acceptance.
Spiritually, many of us live like the first child.
We believe our behavior makes God love us more or less.
But we can't get everything right. None of us can live perfectly.
Eventually, that way of living produces one of two things: perpetual guilt or exhaustion.
Some people spend years white-knuckling their faith—trying harder, cleaning up, failing, gritting their teeth, and wondering why nothing ever changes.
The answer isn't that they didn't try hard enough.
Conforming was never the thing that transforms.
Striving and effort aren't God's formula for spiritual life.
There is freedom in knowing that God doesn't love you because you performed well this week.
He loves you because you belong to Him.
So what would God have you know?
I love you.
There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more.
There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less.
You are bought with the blood of His Son.
And you are His.
Now walk in freedom and purpose.
Following Jesus Requires Staying Connected
If you've never said yes to Jesus, hear this clearly:
You do not have to fix your life first.
Jesus didn't come for people who already had everything together. He came for people who don't—which includes all of us.
There is no test you have to pass.
There is no version of Christianity where you earn your way in.
Jesus has already done the work.
Paul says, “You accepted Jesus as your Lord... so now continue to follow him.”
You've come to Jesus.
Now follow Him.
But there's something about following that we don't always think about:
You cannot follow someone you're disconnected from.
Before GPS, maybe you followed a friend across town to a restaurant you'd never been to. They made it through the yellow light, but you didn't.
Suddenly, you're not following anymore.
You're just driving around.
That can happen spiritually, too.
We're still moving.
We're still busy.
We're still religious.
But somewhere along the way, we got too far behind the One we were trying to follow.
When that happens, our instinct is often to work harder.
But Paul changes the question.
It isn't simply:
How hard am I working?
It's:
What is keeping me connected to Jesus?
Paul writes:
“They are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.”
—Colossians 2:19
Again, the diagnosis is connection.
Growth comes from connection to Jesus.
And growth happens in a body.
You Were Made to Grow With Other People
Paul doesn't describe Christians as isolated individuals who grow independently.
He describes a body.
And a body grows together.
That's why gathering with other believers matters.
Another passage of Scripture tells Christians not to give up meeting together. God isn't needy about our attendance. He knows how we're designed.
We were designed for connection.
Christianity was never meant to be a solo endeavor.
You can listen to a sermon by yourself. You can read your Bible by yourself. You can pray by yourself.
But there are parts of Christian growth that happen when we live in relationship with other people.
A Sunday service is important, but connection requires more than sitting in a row.
A branch can sit beside a tree its entire life and never actually be connected to it.
So ask yourself:
Am I actually attached to anybody here?
Not simply, Do I attend?
Attendance is not connection.
Three Ways to Move From Casual to Committed
At The Orchard, we don't have membership.
That's intentional.
There is no membership form, vote, badge, or card.
But there is a path from casual to committed.
And these steps aren't ways to earn God's acceptance. They aren't things we do so Jesus will love us more.
They are ways we prioritize the kind of connection and participation that Paul describes.
1. Connect
Connection to the church helps us thrive, grow, and remain connected to Jesus.
There are two clear ways to connect at The Orchard.
Community Groups are where connection in the body becomes personal.
When difficult seasons came, including infertility and challenges in marriage, community group wasn't simply another church activity. These were people who prayed, cried, and walked through life together.
That kind of relationship doesn't happen simply by sitting in a row on Sunday.
Impact Groups provide another opportunity to grow.
These groups offer one subject, one group, and one season, led by mature believers who want to grow in knowledge, faith, and passion.
There are opportunities to study Acts, explore Ephesians, learn about apologetics, and grow in prayer.
Choose one and take the step.
2. Serve
A body part that stops functioning as it was designed to function will atrophy.
After completely tearing a pectoral muscle from the bone during jiu-jitsu, months of recovery followed. The arm was immobilized, and the entire right arm atrophied.
The lesson is simple:
When a part of the body stops functioning, it diminishes.
The same principle can apply to our spiritual lives.
God has given each of us gifts, abilities, experiences, and opportunities to contribute.
When we don't use what God has given us, we miss part of what He designed us to do.
There are opportunities to serve with Orchard Kids, Youth Group, Sunday gatherings, Community Groups, and behind the scenes.
Maybe you're outgoing and love meeting people.
Maybe you're quiet and prefer organizing.
Maybe you want to teach.
Maybe you'd rather make coffee, greet someone at the door, help with students, or support something behind the scenes.
There is a place for you. Find it. Serve.
3. Give
The Orchard doesn't pass a plate during the service, but the church is sustained by the generosity of people who believe in what God is doing.
That generosity supports the church's ministry, missionaries, churches around the world, and people in need in the local community.
If you're new, visiting, or exploring faith, this isn't an expectation being placed on you.
But if The Orchard is your home—if you're saying, I'm not casual; I'm committed—consider becoming a monthly giver.
Giving isn't about earning God's approval.
What you give is between you and God.
But committed generosity helps make the mission possible.
Connect. Serve. Give.
These aren't ways to earn God's love.
They're ways to live out a life that has already received it.
Jesus Above All
Everything comes back to the same place.
Jesus above all.
Jesus is the head of the church.
He's the reason we connect.
He's the One we're serving.
He's the One we're giving to.
He's the One we're living for.
Jesus. Period.
If you haven't yet placed your faith in Jesus, begin there.
You don't need to clean yourself up first.
Receive what you could never earn.
And if you've already come to Jesus, keep following Him.
Let your roots grow down into Him.
Let your life be built on Him.
Let your connection with Jesus produce the growth you could never manufacture on your own.
How do I know if I'm growing spiritually?
Look beyond activity and ask whether you're becoming more like Jesus.
Spiritual growth isn't simply about how much information you know or how many Christian activities you participate in. Look for the fruit that comes from being connected to Jesus.
Do I have to work harder to become acceptable to God?
No. The message of Colossians is that our acceptance is rooted in what Jesus has already done. We don't work for God's acceptance; we learn to live from it.
Why does being connected to other Christians matter?
Because God designed His people as a body. Spiritual growth happens not only through our personal connection with Jesus but also through meaningful connection with other believers.
Stay Connected to the Source
A Honeycrisp branch doesn't produce Honeycrisp apples by trying harder.
It produces fruit because it is connected to the tree.
That's the invitation for us.
Don't measure your spiritual life only by how busy you are.
Don't confuse attendance with connection.
Don't turn Christianity into a formula where Jesus does His part and you have to do enough to finish the job.
Instead, stay connected to Jesus.
Let your roots grow down into Him.
Build your life on Him.
Connect with His people.
Find a place to serve.
Practice generosity.
And trust that the God who made you alive in Christ is the One who produces growth in you.
Growth comes from connection to Jesus.
And growth happens in a body.
Jesus above all.
This article was adapted from a message at The Orchard Church in Carbondale, Colorado.
Explore more messages and resources from The Orchard Church at https://theorchardlife.com/media.