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Five Signs of Spiritual Growth

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So, how are you doing with your spiritual growth lately?   In his book, "Rediscovering Holiness," J. I. Packer noted five signs of spiritual growth.  Read through these and see how you are doing: 1) A growing delight in praising God, with an increasing distaste for being praised oneself. 2) A growing instinct for caring and giving, with a more pronounced dislike of the self-absorption that constantly takes without either caring or giving. 3) A growing passion for personal righteousness, with more acute distress at the godlessness and immorality of the world around, and a keener discernment of Satan’s strategy, opposition, distraction, and deception for ensuring that people neither believe nor live right. 4) A growing zeal for God’s cause, with more willingness to take unpopular action to further it. 5) A greater patience and willingness to wait for God and bow to his will, with a deeper abhorrence of what masquerades as the bold faith, but is really the childish immaturity, t

Bible Commentary | Matthew 6:9-13

Note: This page is under construction as I am currently in the process of studying the Lord's Pray for an upcoming sermon series. See a list of helpful resources on the Lord's Prayer at the very end of this article. William Barclay has an interesting paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer ( The Lord's Prayer , p. 3): When you pray, Remember that God is your Father and your King, and that, therefore, you go to One in whom Love and Power are equally combined. When you pray, Do not hesitate to tell God about your daily needs. When you pray, Do not shrink from telling God about your mistakes. When you pray,  Never forget to place the unknown future and all its perils in the hands of God.  The Lord's Prayer is also called the model prayer or the disciple's prayer.  It is not a prayer Jesus would have prayed since He needs no forgiveness.  R.T. Kendall points out that it is called the Lord's Prayer because Jesus authored it, and because Jesus commanded us to pray it.   (