Day 23 of 40
Growing up…
Here’s how it
starts.
You’re a baby,
totally dependent.
Last night we
welcomed a brand new baby girl into my family – my tiny niece came 6 weeks
early due to complications with my sister-in-law. Praising God today that new
Mummy and tiny 4lb 2oz baby girl (who is yet, un-named) are both doing well. J
This tiny baby
girl has a piece of this Auntie’s heart already.
Because she is
premature and so small, she is in an incubator with a few things to help her breathe
etc… as she is not even fully developed!
This is what we
are like when we first become Christians.
Everything is
so new in the world that any adventure could happen, though we don’t even
realize what all life may hold. We are dependent on people to feed us and help
us develop.
As a precious,
beautiful newborn we are completely pure without anything weighing us down. We have
completely discarded all the waste of our old life in the womb and come into a
bright new world of possibility with a very capable God in control.
1 Peter 2:1-3
(NLT)
So get rid of
all evil behaviour. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all
unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so
that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this
nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.
But God doesn’t
want us to stay in the newborn stage. He wants to see us grow up and become
mature functioning people in the Kingdom.
So often we
stay there… hooked up to oxygen to help us breathe… depending on people for
nourishment and whining when something is wrong… letting others clean up our
gross messes… crying all the time.
This is not God’s
idea of a functioning church body.
It’s time to
grow up.
As with
anything else, we can’t do this on our own.
That’s why God
appointed spiritual authority to help us grow up.
But we must let
them.
See, the
difference is that my beautiful baby niece has no choice but to grow. (in fact,
she will have grown a lot without even thinking about it by the time her Auntie
Chelle even gets to see her in person!)
But as
Christians, we have to make the choice to grow up.
If we just stay
dependent on others and crying and whining and pooping our spiritual pants
about everything in our lives, we will stay there and eventually become such an
annoyance to the rest of our local church.
I mean, think
about that for a second. Would you want a baby that always stays a baby?
I have 2 nephews
and a niece who are turning 1, 2 and 3 this spring/summer and they are SO much
fun!
They are
learning so much everyday and Carter – the oldest – is already learning bible
stories and understanding that the snake in his “Adam & Eve” story is VERY
very bad snake. He also recently learned that commandment #5 (in his 10
commandments story) is obey mommy and daddy! All his parents have to say is “number
five”, and Carter will do exactly what they tell him.
See! This is
what growing up is all about!
As mature
Christians we need to get past the newborn stage and grow up into all the
things God has for us.
God wants us to
grow up into the person He created us to be like… Jesus.
 |
| Larissa & Carter |
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