Maturity
*This post was written Jan 23, since then God has showed me a little more about maturity. Look for another post soon. Thanks for checking in! *
You ever have a moment where you want to throw yourself down on the ground like a 3 year old and throw a temper tantrum? ?? Confession time I have at least twice this week. Things that run through my head...how dare you say, how dare you don't say, don't treat me like that, I hate you, why does this have to happen? These are never the words that escape my lips, instead I tend to be a little more like a door mat. Going with the flow of what is happening, holding it all in until I talk with my husband, then verbally and emotionally vomiting all over him. I am grateful to have him around, he will recenter me when I need it.
This week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, and I don't see that ending with in the next few hours or days. My friend who was battling pancreatic cancer went to be with Jesus early Thursday Jan 19, and while I am left with a hole in my heart, my heart aches for her family. Her husband and children, mom and dad, brother and sister, in laws, long time friends...the list is very long. After hours of crying I can at least think about her and them without crying... for now anyway.
God has recently been talking to me about maturity. I am no longer allowed to act out in any way that resembles a fit. I am no longer allowed to be moved with the wind and waves of my emotions. (It stinks!) This week when all I want to do is cry and throw a temper tantrum, I am reminded that God has been preparing my heart to TRUST HIM with all things in my life, including my friend and her family.
The definition of mature mean to be fully grown.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul is talking and he says:
Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers? For whenever someone says, "I'm with Paul," and another, "I'm with Apollos," are you not unspiritual people?"
As people who are chasing after Christ we should start of as babies, needing help to eat. That help would come in the form of Sunday service messages, daily devotionals, pod casts...all kinds of ways. As we grow in the Lord we should eventually learn to walk on our own. Then run.
What do I mean by this? I mean that we have been held back in our faith by things that were designed to push us forward. Current day believers are kind of lacking in the maturity area...we quote a lot of scripture, but we rarely if ever open the Bible up for ourselves outside of Sunday mornings. If we do, we give up as soon as we don't understand something we have just read.
It is way easier today to pick up our phones, search the top rated pastor, download a message. Then we can call it good. Or, and please don't get too mad at me, pick up a daily devotional and read the writers thoughts on Christ then close the book and move on. Ouch...it hurts. It hurts when we think that what we are doing is getting into God's word. Look I get it, I love my devotional book that I read in the mornings, but then I close it and open my Bible and see what God has to say. Not just the verse the author wrote out for me to look up. Not in 1-2 verses but chapters, sometimes I even have to read them again because I couldn't quite wrap my head around what I was reading. Sometimes I have to go to my phone and open my Bible app and read a different version of the Bible in order for me to understand. That is ok. It is ok to have to look, dig a little deeper for conformation or understanding. If we want the spiritual maturity that Christ died to give us we NEED to dig deeper into His word for ourselves. We need personal knowledge of what God says in His word, not what we have heard other people say. We need to question and wrestle with Him when our circumstances don't match up with our belief system. I personally have had a lot of wrong theology about God, Jesus and Holy Spirit and I am often amazed that what I thought I had been taught was not completely correct in the setting of what the author was speaking.
Context is so important, it's why texting is a bad way to communicate. We can get all sorts of wrong thoughts or ideas about something if we miss that the story was set in prison, or exile or even freedom.
Here is another good thing to point out...YOU can read the Bible without an interrupter or instructor. Now days we have the amazing option to listen to God's word while we do just about anything. I am often intrigued at the different personalities that I hear when someone is reading the word than when I am reading in my head. They never have that much personality when I read in my head.
Here is another thing I like to do...I try and spend time listen for what God might be leading me to learn or understand that morning. This is a great thing to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart about something you need to learn a little bit more about, but if you only get your truth from that voice, your missing the written word of God. The two need to match, God would never contradict Himself. Truth is found in the written word of God. We have to look at it for growth and maturity.
Our lack of maturity is our lack of understand in a deep level the words that God has given to us to understand. We were designed to grow in our faith from being served to serving others around us who are now were we use to be. Having your feet washed to washing feet, if you will. The church can't not run with out the mature Christ followers. But unfortunately most churches have about 20% of the whole body is serving in the different areas. Why? I believe that it's because we never got to the point in our maturity where we realized that Christ was a servant and there for we are servants. Christ didn't say take the best seats in the house for Himself and think only of Himself...instead He says in Luke 14:7-14
Don't take take the best seat, just in case someone more important than you shows up and you have to be asked to moves. 7. " For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
When you are able to "feed" yourself during the week by getting daily into the word, we are able to serve on a Sunday morning, because Sunday morning no longer become our main course of spiritual food, but an appetizer that increases our hungry to go deeper or a desert that was the ending to what God has been speaking to you through out the week.
My personal biggest growth had been in small Bible study groups where we were able to chew over what we felt like God has been showing us during our week in the Word of God. Don't have time for a small group? That ok, spend what time you can in the word and keep a notebook of what God is daily highlighting to you during your reading time. Only can start with 5 minutes...great do it! Carve out some time to get into the Word of God.
We receive what we sow. Sow time in God's word and receive the gift of maturity which allows us to go through very hard situations with God's grace and mercy, not being tossed around by the waves of life and our emotions.
I have watched my dearest friend and her family walk through their trial with the greatest of grace because of their maturity in Christ. It inspires me and pushes me to allow God to deal with stuff in my life so I continue re-present Him well here on earth.
You ever have a moment where you want to throw yourself down on the ground like a 3 year old and throw a temper tantrum? ?? Confession time I have at least twice this week. Things that run through my head...how dare you say, how dare you don't say, don't treat me like that, I hate you, why does this have to happen? These are never the words that escape my lips, instead I tend to be a little more like a door mat. Going with the flow of what is happening, holding it all in until I talk with my husband, then verbally and emotionally vomiting all over him. I am grateful to have him around, he will recenter me when I need it.
This week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, and I don't see that ending with in the next few hours or days. My friend who was battling pancreatic cancer went to be with Jesus early Thursday Jan 19, and while I am left with a hole in my heart, my heart aches for her family. Her husband and children, mom and dad, brother and sister, in laws, long time friends...the list is very long. After hours of crying I can at least think about her and them without crying... for now anyway.
God has recently been talking to me about maturity. I am no longer allowed to act out in any way that resembles a fit. I am no longer allowed to be moved with the wind and waves of my emotions. (It stinks!) This week when all I want to do is cry and throw a temper tantrum, I am reminded that God has been preparing my heart to TRUST HIM with all things in my life, including my friend and her family.
The definition of mature mean to be fully grown.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul is talking and he says:
Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers? For whenever someone says, "I'm with Paul," and another, "I'm with Apollos," are you not unspiritual people?"
As people who are chasing after Christ we should start of as babies, needing help to eat. That help would come in the form of Sunday service messages, daily devotionals, pod casts...all kinds of ways. As we grow in the Lord we should eventually learn to walk on our own. Then run.
What do I mean by this? I mean that we have been held back in our faith by things that were designed to push us forward. Current day believers are kind of lacking in the maturity area...we quote a lot of scripture, but we rarely if ever open the Bible up for ourselves outside of Sunday mornings. If we do, we give up as soon as we don't understand something we have just read.
It is way easier today to pick up our phones, search the top rated pastor, download a message. Then we can call it good. Or, and please don't get too mad at me, pick up a daily devotional and read the writers thoughts on Christ then close the book and move on. Ouch...it hurts. It hurts when we think that what we are doing is getting into God's word. Look I get it, I love my devotional book that I read in the mornings, but then I close it and open my Bible and see what God has to say. Not just the verse the author wrote out for me to look up. Not in 1-2 verses but chapters, sometimes I even have to read them again because I couldn't quite wrap my head around what I was reading. Sometimes I have to go to my phone and open my Bible app and read a different version of the Bible in order for me to understand. That is ok. It is ok to have to look, dig a little deeper for conformation or understanding. If we want the spiritual maturity that Christ died to give us we NEED to dig deeper into His word for ourselves. We need personal knowledge of what God says in His word, not what we have heard other people say. We need to question and wrestle with Him when our circumstances don't match up with our belief system. I personally have had a lot of wrong theology about God, Jesus and Holy Spirit and I am often amazed that what I thought I had been taught was not completely correct in the setting of what the author was speaking.
Context is so important, it's why texting is a bad way to communicate. We can get all sorts of wrong thoughts or ideas about something if we miss that the story was set in prison, or exile or even freedom.
Here is another good thing to point out...YOU can read the Bible without an interrupter or instructor. Now days we have the amazing option to listen to God's word while we do just about anything. I am often intrigued at the different personalities that I hear when someone is reading the word than when I am reading in my head. They never have that much personality when I read in my head.
Here is another thing I like to do...I try and spend time listen for what God might be leading me to learn or understand that morning. This is a great thing to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart about something you need to learn a little bit more about, but if you only get your truth from that voice, your missing the written word of God. The two need to match, God would never contradict Himself. Truth is found in the written word of God. We have to look at it for growth and maturity.
Our lack of maturity is our lack of understand in a deep level the words that God has given to us to understand. We were designed to grow in our faith from being served to serving others around us who are now were we use to be. Having your feet washed to washing feet, if you will. The church can't not run with out the mature Christ followers. But unfortunately most churches have about 20% of the whole body is serving in the different areas. Why? I believe that it's because we never got to the point in our maturity where we realized that Christ was a servant and there for we are servants. Christ didn't say take the best seats in the house for Himself and think only of Himself...instead He says in Luke 14:7-14
Don't take take the best seat, just in case someone more important than you shows up and you have to be asked to moves. 7. " For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
When you are able to "feed" yourself during the week by getting daily into the word, we are able to serve on a Sunday morning, because Sunday morning no longer become our main course of spiritual food, but an appetizer that increases our hungry to go deeper or a desert that was the ending to what God has been speaking to you through out the week.
My personal biggest growth had been in small Bible study groups where we were able to chew over what we felt like God has been showing us during our week in the Word of God. Don't have time for a small group? That ok, spend what time you can in the word and keep a notebook of what God is daily highlighting to you during your reading time. Only can start with 5 minutes...great do it! Carve out some time to get into the Word of God.
We receive what we sow. Sow time in God's word and receive the gift of maturity which allows us to go through very hard situations with God's grace and mercy, not being tossed around by the waves of life and our emotions.
I have watched my dearest friend and her family walk through their trial with the greatest of grace because of their maturity in Christ. It inspires me and pushes me to allow God to deal with stuff in my life so I continue re-present Him well here on earth.
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