The Journey to Maturity

"Faith is not stagnant. It is either growing or diminishing." Not sure who the author of this quote is but I do know that they're right. 

I remember when the Lord brought me to saving faith some five years ago. My eyes were truly opened and it was as if I was seeing the world as it really stood for the first time ever. I was so hungry for God's Word that I would wake up over an hour earlier than needed in order to ensure I had enough time to read my Bible and pray. If you know me well then you  know I love my bed and sleep...so getting me out of bed early in the morning is no easy feat. But by God's grace I was able to make it happen. By His Spirit, I desired with everything in me to obey Him and knew that the only way to do that was to know His Will, which is laid out for us in scripture. God states the following about His word and commandments...

"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God...Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;" - Proverbs 2:1-5, 9

We are to search God's Word as one would search for treasure, diligently and thoroughly, as to gain wisdom, understanding, and grow in obedience. So search I did search, and grow I did grow in the first year and a half of my Christian walk. I was learning so much and growing like a weed, feeling closer to Christ each day. If only I could say that it's been like that this entire time!

I'm not sure when it was that my zeal in learning and growing in my faith started to fall off but, at some point, sleep started to become more important than Bible reading. I was always saying "I'll find 20 minutes somewhere to "squeeze" my reading in." Worldly responsibilities and my own desires became the priorities in my life. When I did find time to read, it was usually rushed and I was not as focused as I needed to be to truly gain anything much from what I was reading. When it came to listening to Christian sermons and podcast, I found myself cherry picking - only selecting the topics I wanted to hear about. The "practical" topics like marriage, Christian womanhood, and some Christian basics. I became content with what you'd call "drinking my milk." Hebrews 5:12-13 states...

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child."

Several years after coming to saving faith and I was still playing with "the ABCs of life rather than understanding the deeper truths of scripture...so satisfied with the basics that I'd gotten stuck in my spiritual journey." (Swindoll, 27) The book of Hebrews continues on...

"But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."   -Hebrews 5:14

See what it says there? "Trained by constant practice."We need to be trained in God's Word in order to detect error and recognize when something is wrong. We gain discernment! That discernment guides our conduct; in addition to learning what IS right, we also DO right. We become mature Christians. So if we take what Hebrew 5:14 says and flip it, we could say that if we're not eating the solid food of scripture, then we are drinking milk which makes us immature Christians; lacking discernment and unable to distinguish between right and wrong as we ought...unable to DO right as we ought. Did you catch what else was said in Hebrews 5:12? "By this time you ought to be teachers..." We are also to learn and grow in our faith in order to teach others and do as God says in Matthew 28:19...make disciples. But we can't teach what we don't know!

My lack of spiritual growth had been weighing on me for some time and, praise be to God, a few weeks ago I went for a run while listening to a sermon from Alistair Begg titled "Slowing or Growing". I did not go searching for the sermon, it was their daily message for the day - but I am so glad that I pressed play. You can click here if you're interested in having a listen too! The Spirit convicted me trough that sermon and I prayed that the Lord would bring back that zeal I once had and increase my hunger for His Word. Once I got home from my run I remembered that in those days when I was so eager to dig deeper into scripture, I had purchased a book - "Searching the Scriptures" by Charles Swindoll. A book all about why we need to dig deeper and methods on how to do just that. Now, I don't think he is a reformed pastor but I do know that he's solid on the essential truths and the methods he shares in this book have been game changing for me, so I highly recommend it!

Since applying the methods found in "Searching the Scriptures," my study time is no longer a quick 20 minute, half focused session of getting through my daily Bible reading. I now sit with my Bible, notebook, a concordance, dictionary, commentary, and Bible dictionary all by my side (some are apps on my phone so it's not like I'm surrounded by books!). I no longer just read through the words but endeavor to deeply understand them, their context, and meaning. I use to think that this kind of study was for pastors and theologians. But that's just it! All true professing Christians ARE theologians and we should be able to nourish our own souls with the meat of scripture! And God has been so faithful! By His grace, I can feel the desire to learn and obey, along with my understanding  of what I am reading increase with every study. I get excited about my study time and even more excited to share and discuss what I've been learning with others! I say none of this to boast but to show that God answers prayer and just as it states in Proverbs 2:3-5 "...if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." 

So, are you growing? Or are you content with your milk? Now, don't get me wrong, milk has it's place; just as milk nourishes newborn babies, so it nourishes newborn Christians. But we are not to stay there! We are meant to progress forward in our understanding which goes hand-in-hand with our discernment and obedience to God..even our love for God. How can we love God and not love His Word? I would encourage you to examine your spiritual diet and if you find yourself like me, lacking in growth, then pray that the Lord would make you hungry for His Word and then... go and read it. Not in a passive way! As Mr. Swindoll says in his book, "the Bible does not yield it's treasures to lazy souls." So read actively, be present and God will faithfully give wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Happy reading growing!

   xo

Janine