Maturity


If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead. Luke 16:31

We hear a lot of talk about spiritual maturity and what that looks like. It’s one of those things that cause division within the Christian community. Some people think that a mature Christian always says yes. This is the person who is part of every ministry, every committee and is in involved up to and over his/her head in the lives of the people closest to them. There is the school of thought that says Christian maturity limits behaviors. A mature Christian doesn’t_____________.  Fill in the blank with anything because the details vary.

Personally I have struggled with this concept. After thirty plus years of a serious, deep relationship with Jesus Christ I would hope to be a mature Christian but then I meet that person who condemns something that I do and I wonder. That is my own insecurity talking of course but what does it mean to be mature in Christ? That is not to say that the work our Father is doing in us is finished but to suppose that we have reached a certain level of commitment.

Today I read a message that included this line, “I fill the emptiness within you with my love. I supply your yearning for answers with My Word.” Your yearning for answers…. Ah, perhaps Christian maturity is about trust. When one can stop asking why, why, why like a three year old and simply accept God’s will, that seems like a huge indicator of maturity.

We’re human and we’re going to have doubts but when we can say, “not my will but Yours” and mean it. When we can say it without searching for a reason why, then we may be a bit mature.

Reading that line I had a quick flash of the myriad times I have supposed I knew what God was doing. Faced with something unfathomable we try to put a spin on it that makes it easier to digest. When bad things happen we scramble to find a reason why God would allow it. Conversely when good things happen we call them miracles and move on. Why did God give us a miracle? Easy, He loves us.

So, why did he allow that awful thing? I don’t know and all the speculation in the world does not make me feel better. Perhaps letting go of my need for understanding and simply saying, “He loves me” is sufficient.

Maturity is incremental and I don’t know where I am on that spectrum. I do know this, it is much, much more peaceful to let God be God and trust His actions than it is to scramble around for answers.

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