10/20/2019
Are we satisfied with spending our lives as the immature children of God? Do we wish to be nothing more than His ward, and sit upon His knee? Is this how we envision Jesus; as a juvenile child that the Father sent unwittingly, and without understanding, to His death upon the cross? No, we should desire to be growing and maturing in our faith, and love, longing to be like Christ who is the head of the church... the groom.
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”
Ephesians 4:15 ESV
When the days are long, and the road of faith is difficult, we all experience moments when we fantasize about our spiritual childhood, and we even dream of the moment when we first believed... how simple our faith was then. Sometimes we do this in our earthly lives too.
When my father died I found myself in a season of mourning and melancholy in which I reminisced about my childhood, and all those precious moments, and lessons, in which He had given me His wisdom, and love. I longed to relive the times when he held me close, and spoke to me as a child. I wanted to go back in time and remain there forever, but if I did that I would miss the pride he took in seeing me grow into a man. I would miss that moment Jesus experienced when His Father said...
“and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."”
Matthew 3:17 ESV
Yes, I would have missed My father’s glowing smile when he met me, now a young man, along a logging road in Virginia, and saw me dragging a nice buck deer from the woods. I would have missed those moments when I asked him how to solve a problem, and he asked me in return “What do you think?”... rather than immediately giving me the answer. I would have missed him telling me that I now made as good a living as he did, and see the satisfaction of that thought in his face. I would have missed the loving smile of a grandfather holding his grandchildren close. we are meant to grow up physically, mentally, and spiritually. We are meant to grow into adulthood just as Jesus grew into a mature loving Son. Below is the description of Jesus that follows our opening verse...
“from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Ephesians 4:16 ESV
Charles Spurgeon describes the maturing process well when he writes these words about how we are to mature in our faith, and Christianity...
“If we want to mature in grace, we must live near Jesus— in His presence— ripened by the sunshine of His smile. We must hold sweet communion with Him. We must not be content with a distant view of His face, but come near, as John did, to lay our head on His chest.” - Charles Spurgeon
So are we growing and maturing in our faith, and love, or are we dragging our feet and striving to remain forever in our childhood? Are we reaching that place in faithful maturity where we too will pray as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, pick up our cross, and obey the will of God? Look into the mirror, and see who looks back... is it a child, or a mature saint? Do you see a full grown son or daughter of God; an heir and joint heir with Christ?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus who, by His life, teaches us to be men and women of faith. Thank you Father for your Holy Spirit that gives us understanding, and leads us into spiritual adulthood. Thank you for the love that a father has for his baby, then child, but thank you most for Your smile and pleasure when we have arrived at that crossroads into adulthood, and taken the first step. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who guides us into spiritual maturity, and then walks with us; placing His arm on our shoulder. Praised be your name for the lessons you have taught us, some of them hard, that have made us more like you. Great is your name for you have given it to us, and allowed us to claim your lineage, just as Jesus does. All glory is yours Heavenly Father, because your grace flows complete through Jesus, and rests in its fullness upon us. Your mercy abounds, and your love is without end. Holy are you, and within you abides your Son Jesus, and in Him your children... forevermore.
“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
Philippians 3:14-16 ESV
Rich Forbes