He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. 1 Chronicles 4:10

When you were growing up, did your parent stand you up against a wall with a pencil to mark where the top of your head reached?  It’s exciting to see growth!

Growth is impatiently desired in the young. But we don’t think too much about growth once we reach a certain age–other than when our pant sizes go up.

God wants us to be growing forever. It’s not His will that we remain the same person we were 20 years ago, or even 5 years ago. “Spiritually, you can never stay the same. There’s no holding pattern in God,”[1] says Pastor Jim Cymbala.

God invites and instructs us to ask Him for growth, change and blessing in our lives. He promises all that we need but we seem to forget to ask Him for it. In the middle of a string of genealogies in the Old Testament, God gave us a stand-out example of a man who prayed, “Oh that you would bless me and expand my territory.” He wanted growth in his life and Scripture says that God granted him his request (1 Chronicles 4:9-10).

“Growing?” you think.  “I can hardly hold steady spiritually with everything pressing me!”  Satan keeps unrelenting pressure on Jesus followers to stunt our growth. Cymbala points out that, “God sees us struggling and wants [us] to ask and believe.”

Ephesians reminds us of “God’s glorious, unlimited resources” from which He empowers us with inner strength…” so that “our roots will grow down in God’s love” (Ephesians 3:16-17).  Ask Him for some much-needed transformation.  It’s a request He loves to grant.

[1] “God’s Law of Supply and Demand: Pastor Jim Cymbala: The Brooklyn Tabernacle.” YouTube, 20 Feb. 2022, https://youtu.be/ZeSO0k-BrQw.