I believe that God hard-wired us to seek improvement. If we know anything about God, it's that He is a God of regeneration, rebirth, and renewal. I believe He created us with a craving for those things as well, whether we give ear to that craving or not.

There is a reason we exercise, eat right, listen to podcasts, read books, watch documentaries, pursue secondary degrees, and so on. It is because there seems to be a God-birthed desire within us to grow. We may not always follow through on the desire. We may sometimes even do things that work against our drive to improve. But even when we do the opposite of improvement (like when I eat three or four slices of pizza for dinner instead of baked fish and veggies), we often feel the conviction of our decisions. We know we should do better.

The interesting thing about human behavior is that our actions often echo behaviors rooted in God's nature and character.

I believe this is one aspect of what it means when the Bible says in Genesis 1:27 that we were made in God's image. As humans, many of us have the capacity and the desire to create. We are artists, chefs, and architects. I think the spark of creativity in us, both those who have been saved by faith and those who have not, is because we are made in the image of the Creator. When humans seek to care for or show compassion toward the impoverished or the outcast, I believe this is because, in our hearts, we have a spark of God's heart for the needy. These examples, and so many more, point to aspects of our nature that are present because God made us to be like Him in wonderful, mysterious ways.

Like the examples mentioned above, I think the value we place on seeing ourselves grow and improve is a reflection of God's desire to see His children grow to be like Him.

Throughout Scripture, the Bible makes it clear that there is an expectation for God's children to grow in their imitation of Him. God's plan for us is not that faith in Him is the end of the journey but the beginning. Over and over again, the Bible spurs us on to an increasing growth, both in our knowledge of God and in our Christ-likeness. Peter captures this spirit of growth when he says in 2 Peter 1:5-7, "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love." What Peter is speaking of here is a process of growth and improvement. It is a quality reflected throughout God's Word.

In several places, a lack of growth and improvement results in a rebuke. Paul admonishes the Christians in Corinth for their lack of growth. He chastised them for being "babies in Christ," still not ready for the "solid food" of the faith (1 Cor. 3:1-3). The author of Hebrews complained that he wanted to teach his audience more about God, but he couldn't because they were too lazy to understand. He wrote, "Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation again" (Heb. 5:11-12). There is an expectation that as Christ-followers, we strive to grow in our faith and increase in our godliness. There is no room for complacency.

So much of our lives are marked by cycles of growth and dormancy.

We have good seasons where our choices and attitudes lead us to become something new and better. We have rough seasons where we may take steps backward in our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Part of what it means to have a sin-nature is choosing paths that work against the upward arc of our sanctification. Maybe what counts is that deep down inside of us, we have an innate desire for growth because we were originally designed to be ever-growing, becoming more and more like God as each day slowly triggers the passing of another year.

Our goal should be that any improvement we pursue is motivated by our identities as children of God and that our primary efforts at growth should be aimed at growing closer to Him.

This article originally appeared in the Good For You Newsletter, Vol: 12.

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Made To Aim Higher

The interesting thing about human behavior is that our actions often echo behaviors rooted in God's nature and character.

So much of our lives are marked by cycles of growth and dormancy.