And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to built up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
Ephesians 4:11-13 HCSB
We were put here to work for the Lord and be in fellowship with Him. In Genesis 2 God had created earth and made man for two reasons; to be in fellowship with Him and to be over His creation. Adam and Eve failed on both accounts and life became much more difficult than it had been in their days in the Garden of Eden. God created them, but then they experienced some growing pains that would effect generations to follow for all time. They experienced this because they failed to obey God and trust in Him alone.
As Christians, we experience growing pains. I would love to tell you that once you get saved life is just gumdrops and rainbows, but I wouldn’t want to lie to you. Once we get saved, we begin the growth process or at least we should. I always say that we are not saved so that we can decorate a church pew, we are saved so that we can work for Christ. He has a job for us to do. But in order to know what that job is we must grow. We must become educated and be trained for the work he calls us to do.
God gives us free will. When we get saved, we must choose to grow in Christ. We do this through Bible study and prayer. We do this through going to church and joining with other Christians. We do this by remaining steadfast. We are told in James 1:4 to let steadfastness have its full effect that we may be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. This perfection comes when we get to heaven. As long as we are here on earth we are growing and striving to reach that goal.
What we don’t want is for our growth to become stunted. You see if we don’t seek God with our whole hearts, we can fail to grow. When we let our flesh get in the way, it can stunt our growth. We talked about the devil and his lies the other day. When we accept Christ as our savior, we upset the devil. He then goes about seeking to destroy our relationship with Christ. He does not want us to experience spiritual growth. He will try to tell you that all is well and you don’t need to read your Bible or pray or go to church. But remember, he’s a big fat liar (John 8:44).
The growing pains that a Christian experiences come from the devil and we must be prepared to fight against those. We must daily put on the armor that God provides (Ephesians 6:10-18). We must focus on God and allow Him to handle everything else for us (Matthew 6:33). And most importantly, you must have faith. Ephesians 6:16 tells us in all situations to carry the shield of faith. We are told in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God because for us to draw near to Him, we must believe He exists. We can’t have a relationship with someone we don’t believe in, right?
Now when we get saved, we say we believe, but then we start to doubt. Stay with me as we wade in a little deeper. We can believe in God but not believe that He is all powerful or that He is all knowing. If we believed, we would not fear. You can’t have faith and fear at the same time. It took me years of growth to understand this.
Today I am asking you to take a look at yourself. Do you consider yourself a mature Christian? Are you still growing or has your growth become stunted? Are you living according to God’s purpose for your life (Romans 8:28)? We will never reach maturity and completeness until God calls us home, but we must keep growing until that time comes.
If your growth has become stunted, turn to God. Seek Him with your whole heart. Trust in Him and allow Him to guide you in all that you do (Proverbs 3:5-6). Doing so will make your spiritual growth less painful.
Have a great day!