Desiring Spiritual Maturity
My 5-year-old, Levi, wants to be a baby again. He has been joking with me about buying him diapers (he thinks that will solve the issue of him having to wipe himself when he goes to the restroom -- sorry if that's too much info). A few days ago, he told me, “Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a baby.” Not sure where this is coming from, but apparently he already thinks adulting is hard!
We may laugh at this and think it’s a little cute at this age, but don’t we do the same thing spiritually as adults? Don’t we want to stay comfortable in our onesies, letting others spoon-feed us, bathe us, and rock us to sleep? The Bible is very clear that we are not to stay in the “infant” stage in our walk with Christ. We must keep growing!
Hebrews 5:11-14 says, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (NLT)
When we are first saved, we need help with EVERYTHING, just like a newborn baby! We need constant discipleship and guidance as we learn what it means to live as a Christian, to study His Word, to pray, etc. We are essentially being “nursed” or “spoon-fed,” and that is TOTALLY okay at this point in our walks! It’s expected!
But what about when we come across a person who has been a believer for years and is still expecting to be spoon-fed everything?
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 has a pretty stern warning about this: “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?” (NLT)
Christian, it’s time to grow up!
Don't just sit on the sidelines and watch everyone around you grow. Get into the game -- study your Bible, develop a prayer life, serve in your church, fellowship with believers, minister to people around you, and don't be controlled by sin. Don't you want to live to the full potential God has for your life?
If you have kids, you know that they get so excited when they learn something new and are finally a “big kid”! It should be exciting to us as believers when we are learning new truths and growing in Christ!
When we first become a believer, we spend a lot of time just learning the basic, foundational spiritual truths -- that is the “milk,” which is very important! But what will happen if we just stay on that milk?
We will be malnourished! We will not grow as we should. When we reach a certain point, our spirits should crave deeper truths.
Hebrews 6:1 (NLT) says, "So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God."
As we continue to spend time with God in prayer and reading His Word, He is going to keep teaching us new truths. And as we learn and apply these truths, we will be taking bigger and bigger “bites” and eventually move on to meat. The most important part of taking those bites is to chew them and digest them so that our bodies can actually use them and be satisfied! If we just keep the bites in our mouths and never actually use (apply) them, they might taste good at the moment, but they are useless to us in the end.
When you study the Word on your own or are sitting under a teaching through the Word, be sure to ask God to show you how to apply that teaching to YOUR life, and then - get this - actually DO IT! This is the most important part!
James 1:22 (NLT) says, “But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”
As you take these bigger “bites” and digest (apply) them, you will be nourished. You will be satisfied. You will get stronger in your walk with Christ. Just as your body needs to be fed, your spirit needs to be fed!
I hope you will feast on His Word today and continue to grow in Christ!