My goal was to be six feet tall. But it wasn’t going too well–I had made it only to three feet six!

Later, when I had to stand on the front row with the girls for the eighth-grade class picture, it was more than a guy could take! One day it seemed like time to try to help things along.

I went to the kitchen, stood backed up against the door with a ruler across my head, and made a mark. Then I went out into the back yard and hung from the clothesline post for as long as I could stand it. Then I rushed back in to the door and measured again. What a disappointment! It hadn’t helped a bit!

Jesus said,

“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” Matthew 6:27.

You don’t grow by trying to grow. In fact, the more you work on trying to grow, the less you grow. If I had spent all my time hanging from the clothesline post, not only would I have never become six feet tall, but it wouldn’t have been too long until I would have been six feet under!

Ellen White wrote to our church a long time ago,

“The plants and flowers grow not by their own care or anxiety or effort, but by receiving that which God has furnished to minister to their life. The child cannot, by any anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature. No more can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth.” – Steps to Christ, p. 68.

Even small children understand the principle of growth. You can ask them, “Which would you rather work on, growing or eating?”

It doesn’t take them long to figure it out. If they work on growing, they will accomplish neither.

If they work on eating they will accomplish both.

Are you interested in growing spiritually? You cannot grow by focusing on growth. Probably nothing is more detrimental to spiritual growth than to be constantly checking yourself fox- fruit.

The way to grow is by eating–by partaking of the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. The one who experiences the most rapid growth is the one who looks away from self and concentrates on the Sun of Righteousness. The one who is dwarfed is the one who spends the most time trying to grow.

Many people have had the idea that spiritual birth comes from God but that spiritual life is their own responsibility.

“Many have an idea that they must do some part of the work alone. They have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, but now they seek by their own efforts to live aright. But every such effort must fail. Jesus says, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing.’ Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness,–all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly,–by abiding in Him,–that we are to grow in grace. He is not only the Author, but the Finisher of our faith.” – Ibid., p. 69.

Is your goal to reach the “measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”? Ephesians 4:13.

“till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” – Ephesians 4:13

You can never reach that goal by hanging from some spiritual clothesline post. It’s not possible to grow in grace by our own feeble efforts. Growth is a gift. It is received through association with Christ, through communion with Him. Mankind can never gain for himself that which God has promised to give.

Do you sometimes wonder if you are growing? There’s one sure way to tell. Look at whether you are eating! The eating determines the growing every time.