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Desiring Spiritual Maturity

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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!

He Loved Us First

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We love Him because He first loved us.” -- 1 John 4:19

Amazing, right? God chose to love us.

All three of my sons bless me tremendously in different ways. God knew I would need some extra love, affection, and encouragement to get me through my days, so He gave me Isaac, my encourager. Each day -- sometimes multiple times a day -- Isaac genuinely tells me how much he loves me, how “great” I am, or that I’m “the best Mom ever.” (He will make an excellent husband some day!)

One night, he said something pretty profound to me.  As I was saying goodnight to him, we had this little conversation:

Isaac: “I love you, Mom.”

Me: “I love you more!”

Isaac: “I love you the most!  I loved you first... Wait... I guess YOU actually loved ME first since you knew me before I knew you.”

WOW… talk about God dropping a truth bomb on me!

Before my children were even born, I knew them… I loved them so much, my heart could burst.  I can’t explain it, but if you’re a parent, I’m sure you understand what I mean. And when they were born, I cared for them and loved them before they could ever comprehend who I really was to them. They were helpless, especially as newborns.  All they could really do to communicate was to cry out for Mom or Dad. They did nothing to earn my love.

And now, because I simply loved (and love) my children, we have a relationship with each other because they have chosen to love me back.  Even if they had chosen not to love me back, it would not change my love for them.

What a great parallel to God’s precious love for us, His children.  He created you and me. He loved us and knew us before we were even born.  And when we choose to love Him back, we can have a relationship with Him. Meditate on these sweet verses about God’s intimate love for you:

Ephesians 1:4 says that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”

He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Do you realize how much the God of the Universe loves YOU?

Do you realize He gave His own Son, Jesus, on the cross just so that He could be with YOU for eternity?  

Do you realize how desperately He wants to have a relationship with YOU?

Every single person on this earth was created by God.  Every person, including YOU, was created thoughtfully and intentionally by our loving Father.  No matter what any person tells you, you are not an accident. You have purpose here on earth.

What grace and mercy our amazing God has.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Do you know Jesus as your Savior?  He loved you first, His precious child. Give your heart to Him.  Click here if you would like to have a relationship with Jesus and know that you’ll be in Heaven with Him for eternity.  

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