Introvert vs. Extrovert

I  have been thinking a lot over the last few days about Spiritual formation and the personality type. I am a introvert by nature and I prefer seclusion and solitude for my spiritual formation. This means that I like alone times with God and quiet Bible study in prayer. I would much rather spend one on one time with a single person than be in a group of many people. Being in a large group is very tiring to me and I find most Sunday at church is exhausting and I exert much energy in the worship service with my fellow faith family. Where as an extrovert being alone could be death to their spiritual formation. An extrovert likes to be around others and Spiritual will be set on fire for Jesus with a group of people. Thinking around this type of personality type, being introvert or extrovert, as me thinking of 2 important truths to contemplate.

First, whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, God has created you that way and He will form you spiritually the way He desires. No matter the type of person we are God began a good work in us and He will see it through to His completion in our lives. God created us the way He wanted to, so He will provide and supply all that we need to grow. We must rest in God and His care for us rather then try to make excuses for the lack of growth or Spiritual depth we see in our lives. We must trust that God created us the way He wanted and not make excuses for it, change it, or refuse to grow deeper becasue we do not like the way God created it.

The second truth that we must all understand, whether extrovert or introvert, is that both alone quiet time and large group time is important and essential for Spiritual formation and growth. We need to church and the group or faith family God has placed us in to grow spiritually. We also need some alone time with God and us so He can speak to us and we can speak back. The Christian life is a life alone with God but also at the same time a life in the church with others. So whether it is alone or in a group that requires work from us we need to work in the hard things in life to grow. A life of growth in Jesus is hard work, whether it is straining against the world or the devil. We even need to work at the areas of life that are hard for our growth. So whether it is hard to find quiet time with God and against your personality type, or if you are like me and it is hard to be around others very much; we all need to work in areas in our Christian life to grow more like and Jesus and more in love with Him.

So introvert vs extrovert is not about your personality type but is about working hard to grow spiritual more life and more in love with Jesus.