Spiritual Maturity

When we decide to become christians we soon find that we are not only on a path to get to heaven and an eternal reward, but we are also have started a personal journey. This journey becomes as much about us as about God. We soon discover God has authored a faith in us that He wants to develop ... and finish. We begin to understand that the dreams, plans, aspirations, and thoughts of our old life are being changed by a process that God is completing in us. God is taking us somewhere as a person as a well as a christian.

Part of growing from a child to an adult concerns development of our mental and emotion, and social capabilities as well as our physical growth. Physical growth, if we are well fed, get our exercise and rest, and are careful to protect ourselves, will for the most part take care of itself. But emotion and mental growth rely largely on outside influences. The experiences we have in life and the information that is poured into our head through life’s circumstances is what shapes us as a person as we grow older. This process is called maturation.

Maturing involves not only input of information, but also decisions we make about that information. How we deal with information, whether we accept it or refuse it, whether we act upon it or decide to ignore it shapes who we become and to what extent we mature.

Sometimes we label people as being immature. We say this because we expect certain behavior, as a norm, in certain situations.  Paul wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) We expect that when people get to a certain age that they have gained enough life experience to make decisions a certain way. When someone doesn’t react to those norms, we consider them immature.

One of the processes of maturing has to do with how we react with our environment and our society. We teach our children from early on, lessons that help them deal with the environmental and social issues they will face. Some of the most important lessons we learn in that maturation process is relating to the people in our world. As responsible mentors we help children learn how their decisions not only affect them but also how they affect the world around them. Understanding that actions affect others and how they affect others is an important part of maturing.

From an early point in a child’s life we begin helping them learn how to interact with others. We teach them things like: don’t bite, sharing, and be polite, among others; with the hope that they will be able to blend into society in a mature way. 

Part of the maturation process is being able to think outside of ourselves. A newborn has one thing on his mind: hisself. He is completely absorbed in his own needs. I have never heard a newborn ask their mother, in the middle of the night, “Is this an inconvenient time to feed me? Would you like some more sleep? Should we do this later, I know you are tired?” Babies are totally self-centered creatures. As a child grows we help them mature by challenging them to think outside of themselves. We teach them to consider how their decisions will affect the world around them; especially the people in their sphere of influence.

I think this concept applies directly to christian maturity. I have seen many christians, as born again newborns, come into this world hungry and helpless, needing to be cuddled, fed, watched, and helped out of their own messes. They need a guiding hand and to be look after by someone who understands the dangers of the world around them, and the things they truly needed. I have watched as they began to stand on their spiritual legs and and began to walk in the word. Then they began to talk, in terms of faith and eternal values.

But for some, the process of spiritual maturity ceases. Despite long years of christian experience they remained in a immature state. They continue to have the same spiritual maturity that they had when they were very young. As with nature, just feeding and caring for the body doesn’t bring with it maturity. So it is with those who seem to feed from God’s word, and attend to things that keep their spiritual man alive but their maturity level never changes. The sign of christian maturity is not measured in years as a christian. As with the natural side of man, I am sure we know many people who have spiritual age but not spiritual maturity.

One of the true signs of spiritual maturity is thinking outside ourselves. When our spirituality focuses on our own needs, and we are not able to see outside ourselves, we really have missed part of the point of being a christian. (see Matthew 22:35-40) God provides us with resources that equip us to reach outside ourselves. God’s Spirit is sent to us to empower us to minister to others. God’s gifts are tools for us to impact the lives of those around us. 

It is often necessary to surmount the spiritual struggles we have so that we can begin to minister. It is easy to fall back into failure when it comes to spiritual struggles rather than allow God to help us overcome them. When we don’t center in on finding the solutions to these struggles, they will clamp tight on our spiritual lives, like the steel teeth of a bear trap, and we will go nowhere in our spiritual growth. 

One other sign of spiritual maturity is being able to see ourselves for what we really are; not making excuses for our shortcomings, but instead making plans to allow change in who we really are. (With God’s help of course!)(see James 1:22-24) God will shine light in the dark areas of our lives not with condemnation, but with the offer to empower us to change. But... change must flow from our own personal initiative. God does not twist arms. People who cannot accept God’s revelation in this area, and who cannot accept change in their spiritual lives, simply are not spiritually mature. Anything that grows is in the constant state of change. When we look at ourselves and see that spiritual change is not happening, or that we are on the same spiritual level we were years ago, then we must be mature enough to face ourselves in soul searching, and own up to the fact that this will not lead to spiritually maturity. Wanting God to bring attention to our failings and wanting Him to change those things, is, in fact, part of spiritual maturity.

If we only see ourselves, our struggles, our lives, and our spiritual journey, letting it consume who we are, then we must ask God to help us mature by turning us outward. The mature christian is one who comes in tune with the plight of the cold, dark, hurting world around them. The mature christian becomes enveloped with the passion to love... to point of action. The mature christian lives out the love of christ. That kind of christian does not walk down a public sidewalk, through a grocery isle, or out church doors without being pricked by the condition of those around him. Mature christians cannot help but to hurt with those in pain, to bear burdens with those who are heavy laden, and to sacrifice pleasure and gain for those who experience neither. 

If we cannot pour into the world around us what kind of vessels are we. God wants to mature us so that we are prepared to meet a world, a church, a family, a society where they have their need. 

Are you mature? Do you continue to grow and to change, or have you settled in a stagnant place? Have you become stuck in the bog of who you are? Is your life consumed by your issues, your concerns, your life? Are you a funnel of God’s love and grace to people, or has your personal interest bottlenecked your ability to serve God and man? A mature christian ask, answers, and deals with these questions. 

Anything in nature that isn’t growing is dying. Anyone in this christian process that is not maturing is most likely doing the same.

2 Corinthians 13:11 (NLT)
Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Think Control

One of the hardest things that I have ever tried to do is control my own thoughts. They rise up and seem to take control of me instead. Sometimes, I can’t imagine where they came from. They seem to be someone else’s thoughts that somehow got lost, perhaps drifted around, and for some reason ended up in my head. Those thoughts couldn’t be mine. I don’t think that way. They often crowd out all the thoughts I want to think, or should think. They burst in and take over the place.

But, even though they may be foreign to me, or are not the thoughts I would welcome in intentionally, somehow I tend to embrace them. Even though I can see them for what they are, and they are much despised, I reach out to them and latch on to their essence. I entertain them, serve them some tea, tell them they are welcome... and sometimes I invite them to spend the night... or a couple of days... or a month or two.

They have a sneaky way of wearing mask that make me think they are friendly and somehow they are there to do me some good. And if I am not careful I begin to think they are who their mask say they are.

They are always telling about my rights. The make statements like, “You have a right to entertain me!” And often I believe them. After all it is my mind and I can entertain anyone I would like. Right?

Maybe not.

When we choose to become Christians we are ask to do a couple of life impacting things. One, we repent and two, we surrender.

Repentance in it literal meaning is simply “to change one’s mind.” When Christ comes into our lives He brings a whole new way of thinking. In inviting Christ into our lives we are actually allowing Him to change the way we think. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that if someone slaps my right cheek, that I would in turn offer my left for the same beating. But that is the kind of thinking that Christ brings to us.

Why is this so foreign to us? Because we are used to drawing our answers from our old nature. The old nature was not able to accept the way that God saw things, or the way He would have us think. (see 1 Corinthians 2:14) Part of the task that God has is changing the way that we think. He begins a training regiment that enables us to understand a new way of processing information.

The old nature would have struck back when struck. It would be consumed with retribution or revenge. The new nature, that Christ brings, causes us to love when we are hated, to bless when we are cursed, to vanquish thoughts of “eye for eye” and “tooth for tooth” and substitute them “do unto others...” This process is not natural but is spiritual. At first it goes against the grain of who we are.

We are also ask to surrender. To surrender, in particular, our rights to who we are. God accepts us for who we are but He is not redeeming us only to let us remain stagnant in what we have become. He is about making us. An old chinese proverb says that it is more about the journey than the destination. Christianity is about what God wants to do to us through a journey. God moves into our lives and immediately begins remodeling. Usually the first wall He begins to tear down is our thoughts.

Our personal rights; to live like we want, to make decisions our way, to choose our own path for life; are diametrically opposed to surrender. When we choose to live the way, or think the way, we see fit, we are, in essence, saying to God that we trust our wisdom more than His. We are telling Him that we can handle this life better than He can. The Bible says that our lives are not our own. (see 1 Corinthians 6:19) When we surrender to God we must understand that we are entrusting God with the care and guidance of our lives. When we try to pick up our rights again, we are dismissing God from what are now His rights.

The wonderful thing about surrender, though, is that it removes the load of responsibility from my back. When God is in charge, I can allow Him to make the decisions for me. I can rest comfortably in the fact that He never has trouble deciding what is the next, best step for me. Before I had to live with the consequences of my decisions, but... when God makes the decisions for me, the consequences are living. (see Proverbs 4:20-23)

Many thoughts that come to us fight against repentance and surrender. They rattle off a rant of reasons why they need our attention. They can consume our being, and worse, they can describe who we are. (see Proverbs 23:7, Matthew 12:34-35)

A wise person once said, “You can’t stop a bird from flying over your head, but, you can stop it from building a nest in your hair.” Thoughts will come, some from our nature, some from evil sources. They may burst in without warning, but we have the responsibility to ask them to leave. Whether they take up residence or not is up to us. Arnold Bennett said, “Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission.”

In the tenth chapter of second Corinthians, the second part of verse five, Paul writes: “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.” Paul is talking about warfare here; more specifically a war for your mind. What is difficult in thought is capturing prisoners. By that, I mean it is difficult to not allow our thoughts to run around freely. It is very hard to make them obey Christ. Why is this difficult? Because it requires us fighting. It is so much easier to allow our thoughts free reign. They convince us that they have the right to occupy our minds. But Paul says the we are the controlling factor.

It is very satisfying, at times, to think wrong thoughts. Someone hurts you and it becomes very easy to allow thoughts of hatred or bitterness to take up residence in your mind. It somehow feels good, or even right, to think of ways of inflicting pain on someone who has done the same to us.

Those kind of thoughts can be birds, that fly over, or they can become roommates. The choice is ours. But remember, when thoughts become roommates, when they are allowed to stay for extended periods, they will then begin to require changes in who we are. (see again Proverbs 23:7) Thoughts cannot live in us without eventually working their out in the way we talk and walk.

Paul also says in this same context: “We destroy ... every proud thing that raises itself against the knowledge of God.” See thoughts, maybe I should say, a way of thinking, usually locks the door behind itself. It demands that all other ways of thinking be shut out and will settle for nothing less than your full attention. When this happens, it kicks all other reasonings out the door. So, the “knowledge of God,” the way God wants us to think, finds itself out on the streets.

So what do we need to do? I don’t know if you are fan of the character Barney Fife, of the Andy Griffith show, but I am sure many of us know who he is. One of his famous quotes was, “Nip it! Nip it in the bud!” This means to cut a bud off a plant before it has a chance to flower... more so, before it has a chance to seed. Our best defense to housing harmful thought is to “nip it!” See what it is when it comes to the door, no matter what mask it has on. Deny it entry. Refuse to listen to it’s bill of rights. Once we let it in, it can be nearly impossible to get out.

A good method of recognizing whether we are entertain a thought or not is seeing if it will replace the “knowledge of God.” Will this thought require me to displace the value of God’s word and His will? If I act on it, will it bring glory to God? If it comes in, will it cause my “knowledge” of God to grow and become more stable? If we answer these questions negatively, then perhaps we slam the back door and let it fly on overhead.

The battle is really not so much, us against the Devil, but us against ourselves. Though he may bring a thought our way, we decide the outcome by not placing ourselves in a situation where it is difficult to win. By the “nipping” process, we give ourselves a greater chance to win against thoughts that want to permeate who we are.

The Holy Spirit is given the job of helping us understand truth. He will often help us by raising the red flag when we are in doubt as to whether we should open the door or not. Still we hold the knob in our hands.

By allowing the “knowledge of God” to keep it’s place on the throne of our mind, we will become something that only God can make us. By controlling our thought process, we can determine who we are to be.

The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. - Epicurus

Conditions and Failure of Faith

Sometimes our faith clashes with God's will. We want something so badly from the Lord that we may subconsciously think that our faith will somehow change God's mind. We may even fail to recognize that God's will is really what we want.

I think it was C.S. Lewis that said something like, "we don't want God's will because we are afraid it might hurt." I think this is particularly applicable when there is something we want and are afraid that God's will is going to keep it from us. As much as we want God's will, we want ours as well.

What makes this process more difficult is the understanding of God's will. It is easy to understand what I want but many times very hard to understand what God wants. It is easy to see where my will is going, and the benefits from it. But the benefit of God's direction is too often shrouded in mystery.

We often pray, straining to make faith happen, searching for some incantation or special prayer from the scriptures that will magically make the things happen that we are praying for. In our fervor to make things happen it is easy to forget a couple of important issues.These are two concepts, when we pray, that we need to keep in mind.

The first can be illustrate by this simple analogy:

The Bible tells me that if I have faith as a grain of mustard seed, I can say to a mountain move from here to there and it will move. (Matthew 17:20) I actually live very close to a beautiful mountain. It rises majestically to just over 10,000 feet. On parts of the mountain, in the midst of huge rocks, people have built houses. There is a major highway that has been cut through the foothills of the mountain. The highway is several miles from my house and often it would be much more convenient to be able to drive straight through the mountain rather than around it. I have thought that I might like to move the mountain so that my life would be easier when traveling. So what if I did? What if I decided to use my mustard seed faith one day and just move that mountain out of the way? My life would be so much more convenient. I would save perhaps an hour each time I went that way. But how would that affect the lives of the people who lived on the mountain, or worked on the mountain. Certainly if I moved the mountain into the sea, as one scripture says, there would be dire consequences for the people who happened to be at home at the time. The ski resort would certainly be put our of business. It might even cause major issues with the ocean levels and shipping. I think moving the mountain might be a bad idea.

Yes, this is a silly illustration but a very real concept in understanding the way we pray and the way we apply faith in our lives. As much as we feel we need something, in the terms of the affect of our prayers, there may be much more to consider.

When my prayers are not answered in the way that I see fit, I need to expand my mind and understand that God's ways are truly much more perfect than mine. His perspective is much wider than mine.(see Isaiah 55:8-9) God knows all the "what if's" of every way I pray and every way He could answer. My faith in Him has to carry me to the point that I am willing to trust His will over my own and that His will is really what is best.

I guess the mountain will stay where it is.

The other concept is one of understanding God's laws. Though His laws are designed for us, they do impact Him. God has chosen to abide by the laws He has set in place. Let's look at one such law, the law of reaping and sowing. This law is more common to the farmer but most of us understand it's basic concept. What you sow (plant), is what you reap (harvest). When I plant corn in the ground, I can never expect watermelons to grow. God has set this rule into motion and it will affect us as well as Him.

The more we understand God and His nature, the more we know what to expect of Him. When we understand his nature, we begin to see the way He relates to us and our prayers. Part of the understanding the nature of God is understanding His relationship to His own laws. God has decided to keep His own laws, when it come to His relationship with us. When He sets an order then it is establish forever and He doesn't change. (see Matthew 5:18) He will not overstep His choice to abide by His laws because of our petitions or even our needs. Remember though: He set things in order for our good. His laws are given to give us protection, guidance, instruction and spiritual success.

The law of reaping and sowing is very pertinent to how God answers prayer. Why? Because when we pray, we cannot expect God to go against His law to answer our prayers. Let's look at another simple illustration:

A young christian teenage girl decides that she will disobey God's law. She gets pregnant. This devastates her, her family, the church where she attends and will most likely make an impact on the influence in her personal witness, and ministry opportunities. She is truly sorry for her sin and cries out to God for His mercy and forgiveness. God, naturally, is full of grace and pardons her sin. But her prayer continues. "Lord, please make me unpregnant," she cries out.

It is very much within the power of God to make her unpregnant. There are definately many reasons we could see where her no longer being pregnant might solve many issues that will arise. But... You and I both know that the chances of God doing this is virtually nil. Why? Because of the laws that God has set in place.

Understand that despite our faith, God has a bigger perspective of how things need to be done, AND God is never going to step on His own laws to make sure we are pleased. As frustrating as this may be, we should also find a lot of solace knowing this. Knowing God's perspective comforts us in two ways. One is, that He knows enough to do best for all involved. The other is, that His eyes are also on us and our good. This is part of His perspective. Knowing that God doesn't go against His laws is also comforting because we can understand that He is constant in His reaction to us, and that His laws are a sure foundation for building lives on. His laws are right there, in black and white, and should never take us by surprise.

If you have had any experience with prayer, faith, or God, you will no doubt understand that God's way of answering prayer can be very frustrating, even disappointing. He often moves in ways we don't understand and seldom ask our recommendation or permission on matters. There are times He moves without the least evidence that He is, in fact, doing something.

There are times that our faith boils down to just believing that God is hearing our prayers and He is doing things that are best for us, in His timing.

Allowing our faith to be conditioned by what we see defeats the whole purpose of faith. (see 2 Corinthians 5:7) Faith is not about us figuring out what needs to happen and making that happen through a faith formula or properly worded prayer. Faith is more about setting God free to make the right decision and allowing Him to use His power to do so... and trusting that He will.

Sometimes faith/prayer seem to fail us. When the answer is about pain or frustration then we describe that as failure of our faith, or worse, God's lack of concern about our circumstance. But God uses pain and frustration. These may be a very sign that He is answering a prayer. His answer may come through those vehicles.

Trusting God is hard. It is not human in it's nature. As we are learning to trust Him, we are stepping out of our humanity and stepping into spirituality. It is a foggy, treacherous, gut-wrenching, foreign pathway to walk but God is taking us there. Just what might happen if we follow God into that realm of faith?

A Question of Little Faith

There is an interesting story in the New Testament about the disciples and Jesus being in a storm. It goes like this:

Matthew 8:24-26 (NLT)

Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

What is so interesting to me about this is what the disciples did.

First, they are in fear of their lives so they turn to Jesus. Why turn to Jesus, what could He do about a storm. As matter of fact they were surprised in the end at what He did, as though that wasn't what they expected. But what did they expect? What were they looking for from Him? A nice sermon about how God made the wind and waters? Were they expecting Him to row? What did they want from Him? I don't know if we can really know. It is obvious that they wanted to be "saved" but what did that mean to them?

Also it is interesting to see the first response of Jesus. “Why are you afraid?" Why were they afraid if they had confidence that Jesus could do something? Were they afraid of the circumstance or afraid that Jesus would not be able to help? Did the Lord expect them to be such spiritual giants so that nothing would make them fear? Or did Jesus understand that they were turning to Him in desperation without really expecting Him to be able to do anything?

Jesus then tells them about their faith. "You have so little faith!” Jesus says, in action, (if I may paraphrase) "You turned to me for your answer but you have little faith!" I have to ask whether this meant that Jesus was expecting them to calm the sea themselves? Why was there faith still small? Is my lesson here to take care of situations with my faith rather than falling back on Christ to do things for me? Am I suppose to use my faith that way?

Another observation here... Is the question of faith vs fear. I have always thought that faith and fear were such opposites, so diametrically opposed, that they could not occupy the same mind. How could someone have faith and fear. So perhaps their fear was as much a problem as having so little faith. Can you have 60% faith and 40% fear?... or 30/70... etc. Apparently we can still fear but have some faith. Is having faith in Jesus enough? Or is God expecting a different kind of faith?

(Jesus apparently didn't have fear in this situation. He was asleep. He must have been exhausted. Or perhaps, the total lack of fear in Him put Him at total rest.)

Why "little faith?" Perhaps they had the measure of faith that the Bible says we all have. Or perhaps Jesus was referring to the fact that they had enough faith to (at least) run to him for help. But if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can move a mountain. What about commanding a storm?

This story peaked my interest but I am not sure why or seem to be more consumed by questions than answers.

Faith, is something we talk about a lot but demonstrate a little. I continually see great opportunities for faith but find that my prayers seem to accomplish little. Is it because of "little faith?"

Yes, I know! Everyone always falls back on the crutch of saying something like: "God answers all prayers!" or "You just may not see Him answer in the way you think He should!" And that is a valid point. I even believe in those statements and have most likely told others those very words. But the issue that I take with that philosophy is this. According to that story Jesus answered the prayer exactly at the time in the way the disciples need it. It was not a gradual calming of the storm, or the stormed "lightened up" just enough that they were able to row to shore. Was that... or should I say "is that..." the kind of faith we could have if we did not have "little faith?" Most of the time Christ spoke it and it happened. Can we do that?

Would great faith speak it and it would be done? (Please bear in mind, that I am always aware of the will of God in every circumstance. This must always be considered.) But how do I get away from little faith. Yes, "faith comes by hearing..." Yes, we are told to have a shield of faith. Yes, a measure of faith is given us and we are told to exercise our faith. But how do we get that "BIG faith?" Little faith seems to be all I can muster. And would Jesus reprimand me?

Another question that arises though: "Do I already have big faith?" Is it a question of the size of my faith or the knowledge of how to use it? Perhaps many of us have great faith but we don't understand how to use it. Many of us certainly have had enough "hearing" to have tons of faith. So is that we don't know how to make faith work?

Illustration: The was once a very complicated machine. Only two men in the world knew enough to fix these machines. As fate would have it, one broke down. One of the repairman was called. When he arrived, he briefly surveyed the situation. He reached in his tool bag took out a little hammer and banged the machine on the side. Suddenly the machine was up and running and it purred like a kitten. A week later the company with the machine received a bill in the amount of $502.00. The CFO was very upset that a process of 5 minutes would cost that amount of money. He decide to call the repairman. "Why," he grumbled, "was your repair bill $502.00? All you did was hit it with a hammer?" The repairman simply replied, "It was only $2.00 for the hit. But $500.00 for knowing where to hit it."

Maybe we don't understand where to "hit" it. Maybe we have the tools but fall short understand how to use them.

This blog is more about questions than answers, but maybe these are some questions God would have us ask. "Ask and it will be given to you..." is what Jesus said.