Growing Up
 
You know what I’ve discovered as we launch into this new year?  That it’s hard to grow up.  It’s necessary, but oh, how difficult it can be, to find yourself facing a new level of thinking, understanding, and –yikes! – responsibilities. 
 
As you may remember, every year I believe the Lord gives me a word that will represent what He wants to do with me personally, and with our ministry.  He’s given me words like faith, trust, and last year, intimacy.  I can see a progression in His dealing with me, helping me to grow in Him.  Last year was a year to draw close to Him, to deal with personal and ministry issues.  There were times when I knew the only way I was going to get through everything was to cling to Him.  Intimacy with the Lord became more than a word.  Drawing close to Him and depending solely upon Him became a matter of necessity.
 
Intimacy with the Lord—and I mean true intimacy, where He becomes your daily strength, and His Word becomes your sustenance and knowing Him becomes the most important priority in your life—will inevitably result in maturity, my word for this new year, 2003.   God draws us close to lovingly help us grow up. 
 
I received this word with excitement, like an eager kid who can’t wait to grow into his dad’s shoes or be able to play with the big kids…or drive and work and have grown up adventures.  But I also receive it with fear and trembling.  I don’t want to grow up!  I don’t necessarily want to put away childish things!  I don’t want the responsibility!   Some days I feel like a spiritual Peter Pan.
 
 The apostle Paul told us that there are two kinds of people in the world:  saved and unsaved.  Then he explained that there are two kinds of saved people:  mature and immature.  The immature believer is dominated by things of the flesh and has little interest in spiritual things. Paul was deeply concerned about this when he wrote to fellow believers, “Dear brothers, I have been talking to you as though you were still just babies in the Christian life, who are not following the Lord but your own desires…I have had to feed you with milk and not solid food, because you couldn’t digest anything stronger.  And even now you still have to be fed on milk.  For you are still only baby Christians, controlled by your own desires, not God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Living Bible).

Paul longed to bring this family of God into maturity by feeding them the meat of the Word of God.  But they were still so strongly influenced by worldly thinking and behavior that they couldn’t hear God’s voice; they couldn’t grasp all that God had for them. A new babe in Christ is a wonderful and beautiful thing.  I love to see new Christians!   But just as there is a natural progression in our physical growth, there should be a natural development in growth spiritually.  Paul knew how much God wanted to bless His church, if only they would allow Him to help them “grow up.”
 
Paul talked about feeding the people “milk.”  Like a baby not ready for solid food, a babe in Christ can only handle the most elementary knowledge of the Word.  But God has so much more!  He wants us to move on to solid food – to “meat,” —so that we can feast on His Word, grow in our knowledge of Him and actually allow the Word to change our actions and our attitudes. 
 
A babe in Christ is still very dependent on other people, unable to walk or talk on his own.  Babies need to be held.  But a mature believer learns to walk in fellowship with the Lord personally, intimately, and even alone if necessary.
 
A babe in Christ still needs to be fed, but mature believers can study the Word of God for themselves, to allow God to speak to them personally. Mature believers can feed themselves!
 
A babe still needs to be cared for, and the world revolves around that young life. Mature believers begin to give.  They care for others.  There is fruit in their lives.
 
Paul used a beautiful analogy of our lives as a garden, where one person plants seeds, another waters, but, he says, it is God “who made the garden grow in your hearts…He is the one who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3,6,7, LB). And what God grows in our lives is the fruit of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
 
Yes, it can be hard to grow up.  The road can be tough, the trials fiery, and the temptation to give into immaturity will entice us with the lure of an easy, soft life.  But that is a lie.  A baby who refuses to grow up only stagnates into an unhappy, self-centered, unfulfilled being. Growing in Christ allows us to be used by God, to use our gifts, to experience life abundantly, and to share the love of Christ with others.  The rewards of maturity are more than worth the struggle.
 
The beauty of it all is that even as we grow into maturity, we never stop being God’s child.  No matter how old, wise, and spiritually strong we become, God is always greater, always our Father, always ready to help us and love us.  And always, His Word will strengthen us, sustain us—and help us grow up.
 
Ray Bentley