Some are content to know only the basics about being a Christian. They let days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months and months turn into years. Although they have gained new worldly experience and knowledge and physically they have aged, spiritually they have not grown and they produce no spiritual fruit. They may attend church and occasionally read their Bible or say a prayer. They may even be able to quote Scripture and recite the lyrics of every popular Christian song but those words have never penetrated into their heart and made a real difference.
This is not what God desires. God doesn’t want us to be content with an elementary education. He desires to continually challenge and enhance our spiritual growth and understanding. The most important gift that we can offer to God who so lovingly saved us is a teachable and yielded heart. True devotion to God requires letting the potter mold us as clay and truly transform us from the inside out. As the days turn into weeks, and months,and years, we should not spiritually stay the same. As God remakes us, we should become more and more reflective of Christ. That is the ultimate goal of spiritual maturity. And just imagine the impact of a collective body of mature Christians reflecting the light of Christ to a dark world.
Ephesians 4:13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in
love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Reflection:
Reflect back on the past year. Are you the same spiritually as you were a year ago? How teachable have you been and what growth have you yielded to through the seasons of the past year? What is God wanting you to do differently to become more spiritually mature?