What Is Your Shoe Size?

So, I have been buying shoes for many years and during those years I never even questioned what my foot size was, so I would always choose my last size, which is size 9.  I have been buying and wearing size 9 shoes for many, many years and never once put my foot on a shoe sizing tool to measure my feet again.  I wear a size 9!!  Why change?  I remember buying a pair of work boots a few years back and I kept thinking when putting them on "These are the most difficult boots I have ever tried to get on my feet."  I thought "I will just break them in and it will get easier.  It didn't!
So a couple of months ago I went to a local store to buy a fairly expensive pair of shoes and the guy said: "Do you want me to measure for your proper size?"  To which I said "No.  I am a steady size 9."  But then good sense took over and I told him to go ahead and measure my foot. To my surprise, I found out I now wear a size 10 shoe!!   A SIZE 10!!  A full size larger than what I have been wearing for over 30 years!!  It was a shocker for me and now I order size 10's when buying shoes and they fit so much better.  Boy, was I stupid for not measuring my foot to see if my foot had grown anymore?
All of that little scenario really caught me off guard and taught me a valuable lesson about staying current in my walk with the Lord.  In 2 Peter 3:18 Peter writes ¹⁸ Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  A very important word in this verse says it all, and the word is MUST!!
Must (def) - be commanded to.  In the Christian life, we make so many of the firm commands of God optional in our thinking.  But in reality, they are not optional but commanded for us to do.  Here is a scenario of what happens to a believer not growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1. They will stay away from letting God's Word penetrate their inner spirit and thus ignore how the teaching wants to grow them in the Lord.
2. They will strike out against anyone who is living a spirit-filled life because it reveals how much they are not growing in the Lord.
3. They will follow empty worldly philosophies about life and their reasoning will be distorted when it comes to Spiritual matters.
4. They will never grow in their relationship with God and they won't see how large their lack of Biblical reasoning has become.
5.  They will make the excuse "this is the way we have always done it" their battle cry.
Just like me not realizing my foot had grown to a size 10 many will live their life content with an undersized faith that needs to expand to face the rigors of life.  They will resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit to update their walk (sizing) and move on to a better, deeper walk with God.  They will continue to let their outer man control their inner man and continue to walk in an undersized faith relationship with God who continues to reach out to them to resize and update.  Thus, they are out of touch with God and out of touch with the reality that we MUST grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Time to resize and get on with life.  God wants you to try on a bigger shoe...

The Pilgrimage continues....
David Warren