Growing Life (3) Testimony - Joy Kim
Hello everyone, my name is Joy. I recently completed Growing Life and I’m here today to share how God has worked in my life through it.For those of you who don’t know about it, Growing Life is a 6-week life study offered for new believers who have completed Living Life. It is offered one on one, or two on one, in a mentorship style and it is meant to give new believers practical steps to live as Christians.
For me, I was born into a christian family, and so I felt fairly confident about having those basic steps down. Go to church on sunday, pray before your meal, pray before you sleep, read your bible in the mornings, I’m sure a lot of you here are familiar with the drill. Because of this, I was fairly sure that I was taking this study just to re-cement these basics, and I didn’t have that many expectations.In fact, Pastor Caleb told Jeesu and I as we started the study, that rather than a lot of new epiphanies and lessons, a lot of what we learnt would be reaffirmations of what we already knew.
With that the study started. We talked a lot about fundamental parts of living life as a Christian. We learnt about being a part of the body of Christ, of our conflicting natures, our salvation, our authority and the call we have received to pray for our non-christian friends.Through the weeks we spent talking, reading and praying about these topics, God moved me to look into my life. He revealed to me how blessed I am to be part of such a lively and healthy body here at The Seed and in my house church. He also reminded me of the joy of salvation. That was such a blessing.
But by far the biggest way that God has moved my heart through Growing Life was with the very first lesson we learnt, about QT, spending time with Him. Have you ever heard of people refer to the Word as your daily bread? I think I saw it more as my daily multivitamin. Something that was good to have everyday, but not something I needed everyday to survive? So to be honest, a lot of the time, I would only do QT when I was feeling down about something, or was looking to God for advice. Through this study, God taught me that the word isn’t just something that is an added pick me up. Spending time with God in the mornings, on the few mornings that I did through the study, gave me sustenance, energy and life(?) to carry out the day. In order for me to grow as a Christian, it’s not enough to eat a multivitamin or a power-smoothie of a sermon or random prayer session. It’s about what I eat everyday, the quiet time I spend with God in the morning that will really allow me to flourish into a mature, intimate relationship with Him. Of course, my QT life wasn’t and isn’t perfect. Throughout the study, even though we were encouraged to do QT every morning, I wasn’t always so diligent. But I can confidently say that through Growing Life God has shown me why QT is so important. So far, after the study, I have been enjoying spending my mornings in the Word, listening to God’s voice and his promises for me. I’m excited for how my QT life will grow and I’ll grow more and more intimate with Him.
There’s a really funny habit I have of approaching God thinking, yeah I know what you’re gonna say, or what you’re going to teach me. This is going to be no big deal. But God always surprises me, humbles my arrogant heart and reveals something new. So I want to conclude by thanking God and Pastor Caleb for the lessons I’ve learned through growing life and encouraging all of my brothers and sisters here to take it as well 🙂 Thank you for listening.
