How Spurgeon Grew from a Babe to a Man

How do we grow as people? How do we grow as Christians? Is it us, or is it God's work, or is it both?

"The experience of Charles Spurgeon is not beyond the ability of any ordinary Christian. Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a powerful preacher that had converts to Christ every Sunday. His sermons are still in print today and he is held up by many as a model soul-winner. He recalls an experience when he was sixteen that shaped his life and ministry for the rest of his days.

"'When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when I first received those truths in my own soul- when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown from a babe to a man - that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, though having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God.

One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about hte preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, "How did you come to be a Christian?" I sought the Lord. "But how did you come to seek the Lord?" The truth flashed across my mind in a moment- I should not have sought Him unless there had been some precious influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, "How came I to pray?" I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. "How came I to read the Scriptures?" I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and the He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."

"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you to act and will according to His good pleasure." - Phillipians 2:12b-13

May everything we do be for His glory and not for our own pride.

taken largley from "The Pleasures of God", by John Piper, Multnomah Press.