Spiritual Training Wheels

I always find it amazing how people give credit to others for their spiritual depth. I’ve had people in the past say they’ve accepted Christ under our ministry and because of our obedience they’re connected to Christ. Now even though this may be partially true, I disagree with the entirety of the statement.

Listen if your spiritual depth depends on someone other than Christ then you are basing your belief on the wrong person. You and your spiritual life and decisions should be based solely on your personal relationship and love for God and His Word. I’ll be the first to tell you that people will let you down. I will at some point let you down, not intentionally, but I probably will…I’m human - I’m not Christ.

Your salvation and your walk with Christ should be based on a personal growing desire to get to know your Creator better. Now yes, sometimes others can get us started on the right path but essentially our walk down that path needs to be a stronger focus on Christ not on anyone else.

For lack of a better analogy it’s sort of like learning to ride a bike. First you have training wheels and someone to hold you and show you how to pedal and steer. But sooner or later the person holding you has to let you go and the training wheels have to come off so you can experience riding your own bike down your own path for yourself. In other words you can’t say you are following Christ if you constantly have to have somebody else as your spiritual training wheels. Pastors, teachers, mentors and good fiends are great to look to for accountability but Jesus should be your internal and eternal guide.

In closing this blog I guess I need to put it this way…we should never lift people up on pedestals because that just makes them idols in our lives. Jesus said “If (He) be lifted up He will draw all men unto Him.” To put it plainly we should look up to Jesus, not to man.