Eight Helps for Progress in Holiness (from Thomas Brooks)

I was reading Thomas Brooks’ The Crown and Glory of Christianity, and his chapter on “Eight means, helps, and directions for progress in holiness,” stood out to me.  I wanted to jot down some of my takeaways as reminders and encouragement.

1. Be aware of your spiritual needs
   Reflect on your deficiencies in grace and holiness. Recognize your dependence on God and your need for spiritual growth.  A sober awareness of weakness cultivates humility and drives us to depend more fully on God for growth.

2. Keep the Lord always before your eyes
   Live coram Deo—before the face of God—as one always under His all-seeing eye (Ps. 41:12; 1 Sam. 2:1,3). Let the reality of His presence guide your thoughts, actions, and decisions.

3. Associate with the spiritually mature
   Spend time with those who excel in holiness. Brooks notes that the prayers, counsel, and example of the godly can greatly encourage spiritual growth, especially where our own holiness are still weak.  As Thomas Watson memorably said, “Association begets assimilation.’  

4. Choose your closest companions wisely
   Look beyond external worth (wealth, status, reputation) and prioritize internal worth: grace and holiness. Brooks exhorts us to make such people our chief companions: “As young plants will not thrive under dropping trees, such as are weak in holiness will never thrive so long as they only associate themselves with those that are weak . . . Look not so much at their external garb as at their internal worth; and always make them your choicest and your chiefest companions, who do most excel in grace and holiness.  Their tongues, their lips, their lives, will still be a-dropping divine marrow and fatness, and therefore be sure to keep most in with them.“

5. Exercise the holiness you possess
   Just as sin strengthens through repeated practice, so holiness grows through consistent action.  Regularly living out your faith strengthens and deepens your spiritual life. Active Christians become the “best and sweetest” versions of themselves, just as running water is fresh and nourishing.  A musical instrument produces the sweetest melody when frequently played; so too, the Christian most engaged in the exercise of grace and holiness grows most sweet and strong.  Like fire that must be stirred to keep burning, holiness must be preserved and maintained in the soul by being stirred and blown up in the soul by continual practice.

6. Engage in secret prayer and private devotion
   Be diligent in your closet duties (Matt. 6:5,9).  Private, consistent prayer is essential for nurturing holiness in the heart.

7. Crucify sin and subdue corruptions
   Confront and discipline your strongest sins and most persistent lusts. Holiness grows when we actively resist what is contrary to God’s will.

8. Meditate on the holiness of God
   Fix your thoughts often on God’s infinite and glorious holiness. Recognize that He is essentially, purely, universally, eminently, originally, radically, fundamentally, independently, constantly, and exemplarily holy in all His ways and works. Let such meditation humble us, inspire awe, reverence, and a desire to reflect His character.

Taken together, these directions are reminders that growth in holiness is neither accidental nor instantaneous.  It is cultivated through humility, living consciously before God, godly companionship, disciplined practice, a continual stirring up of the grace He has already planted in the soul, faithful use of the means of grace, earnest resistance to sin, steady meditation on the holiness of God, and constant dependence on the Lord Himself.