Grow Up
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.”
Luke 7:31–32
We understand the process of growing up physically pretty well. Every parent knows what it is like to teach their children to walk, talk, and feed themselves. As they grow older, the natural process should be that they learn and develop to the point where they can live on their own. If parents are still cutting food into little bites and “flying” them on a fork into the mouth of a healthy twenty-five year old child, something is wrong. When a physical or mental disability hinders the process of development, we rightly regard it as a tragedy.
Just as it is normal for us to develop physically, we are called to grow up spiritually. The work that God has for us to do for His Kingdom requires that we develop and mature. Paul highlighted the tragedy of Christians who do not grow up when he wrote to the church at Corinth, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1).
If we are to grow, we are going to have to put in the effort to develop our spiritual “muscles.” I read that the great cellist Pablo Casals was still practicing six hours per day even when he was ninety-five years old. When asked why he did that he replied, “I think I’m making progress.” Rather than settling down and thinking that we have arrived, we should be continuing to work and grow throughout our Christian lives. The lazy approach does not build either physical, mental or spiritual strength.
Luke 7:31–32
We understand the process of growing up physically pretty well. Every parent knows what it is like to teach their children to walk, talk, and feed themselves. As they grow older, the natural process should be that they learn and develop to the point where they can live on their own. If parents are still cutting food into little bites and “flying” them on a fork into the mouth of a healthy twenty-five year old child, something is wrong. When a physical or mental disability hinders the process of development, we rightly regard it as a tragedy.
Just as it is normal for us to develop physically, we are called to grow up spiritually. The work that God has for us to do for His Kingdom requires that we develop and mature. Paul highlighted the tragedy of Christians who do not grow up when he wrote to the church at Corinth, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1).
If we are to grow, we are going to have to put in the effort to develop our spiritual “muscles.” I read that the great cellist Pablo Casals was still practicing six hours per day even when he was ninety-five years old. When asked why he did that he replied, “I think I’m making progress.” Rather than settling down and thinking that we have arrived, we should be continuing to work and grow throughout our Christian lives. The lazy approach does not build either physical, mental or spiritual strength.
Today’s Growth Principle:
One of the greatest needs of our day is for God’s people to grow up to spiritual maturity.
Be Patient
by Joyce Meyer - posted February 28, 2016But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.
—James 1:4
James teaches us that we can rejoice when we find ourselves involved in difficult situations, knowing that God is trying our faith to bring out patience. I have found that trials did eventually bring out patience in me, but first they brought a lot of other junk to the surface—such as pride, anger, rebellion, self-pity, complaining, and many other things. It seems that these ungodly traits, with God’s help, need to be faced and dealt with because they hinder patience as well as other good fruit like kindness, love, humility, and other things.
The Bible talks about purification, sanctification, and sacrifice. These are not popula words; nevertheless, these are things we go through in order to become like Jesus in our character. God’s desire is to make us perfect, lacking in nothing. He wants us to ultimately be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which usually requires us to go through some difficulties that, although are unpleasant, do eventually help us mature.
I struggled with the difficulties in my life for a long time until I finally learned that God would work them out for good and use them to help me in many ways. He simply wants you and me to surrender and say, “I trust You, God. I believe when this difficulty is over, I will be a better person than I was before it began!”
No matter what you are going through, trust God that you are growing closer to Him each day!
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