“Putting what we're learning into practice is essential for personal development. You will develop more as a person if you take the time to practice what you learn from the Bible regularly, whether in your relationship with your spouse, your children, or elsewhere in your life.”
Have there been points in your life where you saw significant development in the quality of your connection with God? You were like a sponge, soaking up all the information. But many of us have also been through times when we felt like we were standing still. It's not God's will for anyone to remain in the same place they are.
In Hebrews 5:11–14 (MSG), the author addresses believers in that precarious position. A setback had been made in their capacity for education, as evidenced by the following statement: "I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time, you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. These individuals hadn't necessarily strayed from the right path, but neither were they moving forward. God wants each of us to develop to our full potential.
The "continuous usage" of what we're learning is necessary for our spiritual development (v. 14). Unless you use it, you lose it. I started working in nursing homes and hospitals in Texas when I was 19. As I became more immersed in the nursing home and hospital dialogue and dialect that was foreign to me, I started to pick up the nursing home and hospital jargon and improve my comprehension. But not too long ago, I made a trip to a hospital. And I found out that the fundamentals of hospital expressions I had been under the impression that I had mastered were no longer familiar to me. Because it hasn't been used much, it has deteriorated. Implementing what we've been studying is necessary for personal development. You will experience personal growth if you make it a habit to practice what you learn from the Bible, whether in your relationship with your spouse or your parenting of your children. But Jesus wanted His disciples to go and become teachers themselves, which was an even greater calling for them. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus invited them to "Come, follow me... and I will send you out to fish for people," Then, in Matthew 28:19, He directed them to "go and make disciples." When we share what we know with others, we expand our horizon and their horizons.
In the field of education, there is a model that depicts the most effective ways for students to absorb information. The lecture can be found all the way down at the base of the Learning Pyramid. When you attend a lecture, you are likely to remember no more than roughly 5 percent of the material being presented. Two of the most effective methods of education are "learning by doing" (75 percent of the time) and "teaching others" (90 percent). God does not intend for any one of us to remain in the same position forever. He wants each and every one of us to learn, to put what we are taught into practice, and to instruct others to follow Him.