Growing up is something every child dreams about. There are certain age markers that people look forward to in their lives. Many kids anxiously await the time they can go to school. Some anxiously wait for when they become teenagers. Then comes the time to learn to drive. Then they begin to look forward to high school graduation and some anticipate the time to go to college, then on to a career. As each marker in life is met and passed, it illustrates a sense of growth. Growth entails different elements of life. A child that is given the proper nutrition will grow physically, however, without proper guidance, they will not grow intellectually.
Our Christian walk is compared to the growth of child into maturity. Just like with physical growth, spiritual growth will not happen without the right nutrition and guidance of those who have “been there before.” Think about this, physical babies start out small, relatively speaking. Spiritual babes come in all shapes and sizes. The process is still the same, growth is expected.
Growing is not always easy because we experience growing pains. As we grow physically and go through the different stages of our lives, we encounter awkward situations. Sometimes we have relationship issues and of course there is always disappointments. The same things happen in spiritual walk as well. The key is to focus on God and keep moving forward. In Philippians 3, Paul speaks of his own growth and how he keeps moving on toward the goal of becoming like Jesus. In verse 13 he says, “One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” I think this shows how much the past can be detrimental to out spiritual growth. Sometimes, negative experiences will cause us to want to give up and quit and positive experiences can give us a false sense of “making it” and cause us to become complacent. That is why Paul differentiate between forgetting the good and the bad because they both can become a hindrance if we allow them.
There are so many aspects to consider when it comes to spiritual growth. James reminds us that trials and tribulations help us develop perseverance that leads to maturity. Later in chapter 1, James reminds us how important it is to study God’s word and apply it to our lives. As a matter of fact, the entire book of James touches on issues that illustrate our spiritual growth, from how we react in adverse situations, how we demonstrate our faith, how we speak, and how we pray just to name a few things.
The Hebrew writer chastises his audience because of their lack of understanding of the gospel and because of that lack of understanding, they are not growing and trying to revert to the Old Law. Pay close attention to Hebrews 5:11-14–11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. See, if we don’t grow in the word, we cannot properly understand it let alone teach it!
Growth is a process, and we have to start at the beginning. Just like we all start out as babies and grow to maturity, we start out as spiritual babies and must grow to maturity. We all will grow at different rates, however, if we put in the effort, we all will grow. So, let’s be sure that we, like Paul, continue to strain for what lies ahead!
Read I Peter 2:1-3