What are your spiritual measures?
Do you have ways to measure your spiritual life? What are the things you can measure that tell you whether you’re walking closely with God or not?
I believe that each of us has our own set of spiritual measures. Sometimes we are conscious of them, more often than not they are unconscious things. But there are always there; things we come to recognise as subtle markers of how we’re doing in our relationship with Jesus.
I encourage you to discern your own personal set of spiritual measures. Here are mine:
- Am I judging others in my heart?
- Am I easily irritated by little things?
- Am I getting easily annoyed by my spouse? (This could also be by your children, or by those closest to you.)
- Does God come up regularly in the conversations I have with others, because He’s a regular presence in my life?
- Am I enjoying the present moment? (As opposed to dwelling too much in the past, or being too fixated on the future?)
- Am I being present with people when I’m with them? Am I actually listening to them, being interested, and fully engaging with what’s going on in their life, rather than merely thinking about myself?
- Am I regularly experiencing answers to prayers?
- Is my thought-life filled with Godly thoughts, and expressed in Biblical phrases/ language that comes to me naturally, because the Bible’s words are so much a part of my life?
- Am I regularly giving in to temptations and negative behaviour patterns that lead me to sin? Or am I able to resist under temptation?
- Am I optimistic and hopeful about the future, believing that situations will work out well, and in accordance with God’s will? Or am I afraid, fearing and assuming that things will fail?
These are my top ten spiritual measures, that tell me whether I’m making good progress in my Christian life or not. What are yours?
Mark Williamson works as a director of One Rock. He’s an experienced leadership trainer, author of biographies on John Wesley and William Wilberforce, and is also passionate about praying for London. He enjoys good films, good food, and going for long walks with his wife Joanna. You can follow him on Twitter @markonerock.