Physical. Spiritual. Mental. Emotional. Each of these is a vital part of how God created us as humans. When one of these is out of line, hurt, damaged, or lacks maturity, the others are all affected.
Over the last two plus weeks, I have been sharing my thoughts on how these areas affect us as humans, but also providing some thoughts on how to grow in greater discipline in these areas. I really need to stress that developing a greater discipline with each of these does NOT bring us any closer to earning or meriting God's grace. God's grace will always be just that: grace, free and undeserved. However, growing in our discipline of each of these will help us to be a more complete person, just as God created and designed for us to be.
The flip side of that coin is that we will never be able to fully mature in all of these. First, we simply do not know what full maturity looks like, in God's eyes. We do know that it requires perfection, which none of us are capable of. Then, if we focus too much on one area, the others likely will suffer. Only God can fully live these out perfectly, which He did in Jesus.
Yet, that does not take away from our desire to be a more whole, healthy person. Doing so not only has some great benefits to us while we live this life God has given, but it also serves to help us develop greater and deeper relationships with others. This is especially important when we think of taking the Christian message to those whose spiritual natures may truly be out of line with God.
My encouragement to you as I bring this series to a close is to never stop growing in health and discipline as a whole person. It won't make you more 'godly', but I believe you will discover much more in life because of it.
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