Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.  James 1:2-4 HCSB

Have you ever wished that you could go back in time knowing what you know now.  You know like a do over, but with the knowledge that you now possess.  You would know that even though you thought that guy hung the moon, he was playing you all along.  You would know that the so-called friend was going to end up stabbing you in the back.  You would know that taking that job was a huge mistake.  You would know where you had messed up, so theoretically you could do it all perfectly, right?

Well, life doesn’t work that way. We are who we are because of our life experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  God wants us to grow into mature Christians.  In order to do so, we must experience some trials and tribulations.  You can’t get a rainbow without the rain. How will we grow if life is all wine and roses, right?  How do you learn to fight if you never face a battle situation? How do we learn to trust God if he never has to reach down and pull us out of a mess we have gotten ourselves into?

We learn through experience.  Now some of you are really fast learners, me not so much.  I am a little more hard headed.  It took me years to understand that God was not going to play tug of war with me.  I could either give Him my problems and allow Him to handle them or I could deal with them on my own.  I could not do both.  I could trust Him to have my back or I could worry and let Him know that I really had no faith in Him.  Now let me tell you something, when you are hard headed, these are some hard lessons to learn.  But I praise God that He finally got through to me.  He finally taught me that He’s got this.  Whew!  What a relief that was!

We all need to grow and mature.  If you bring a plant home from the nursery and plant it in the ground and it doesn’t grow or produce fruit or flowers or whatever it is supposed to produce, then something is not right.  If you bring a 6 week old puppy home and it doesn’t grow then there is something wrong.  If you bring a newborn home from the hospital and it doesn’t grow or mature, you know you have a serious problem. Well the same is true with Christians.  You can be called to salvation, get baptized, have everyone pat you on the back and be really happy for you, but if you don’t grow, something is wrong.  I’m talking from experience here.  I was baptized at the age of 11, but I didn’t grow until over 30 years later.  That was a problem, my friend.  We grow through our trials and tribulations.  When we face trials and tribulations we should be praying and talking to God about it.  We should also be studying our bibles.  Not just reading, but studying to see what God has to say to us. The goal is not for us to merely survive, but to grow, to blossom, and to thrive.

So, how do you know when you have reached spiritual maturity?  You know by the way you handle those trials and tribulations that come your way.  You see, when you know that God’s got your back and that He is just working all things out for your good (Romans 8:28), then you can actually come to a point where you don’t freak out when something goes wrong.  You can come to a point where you understand that this is just a test.  You can come through with flying colors because you know that God’s got this.  You can completely trust in His will.

Just like our scripture passage says, trials bring endurance.  A marathon runner doesn’t wake up one day and say I think I’ll go out and run 26.2 miles.  They train and train and train some more.  A Christian doesn’t get baptized and suddenly become mature.  They start with baby steps and they grow through their trials.  When you get to the point where you can consider it a great joy to go through trials, you are a mature Christian, my friend.  When you can face temptation and say, “not today, Satan”, you are a mature Christian.  When hard times come your way and you are not worried, because you know that your God is bigger than any trouble you may face.  You are a mature Christian.

So today, don’t sit around wishing you could turn back time.  Be thankful for every trial you have endured and those that are coming your way.  They make you the mature Christian that you need to be. I pray that if you are not mature, that you are at least growing in that direction.

Have a great day!