Spiritual Maturity (Part 1)

Hello Everyone! It looks like I'm getting to this about once a week. I certainly appreciate your comments, please keep them coming!

I've been thinking about the many reasons that, as Christians, we might worry about our salvation. Some of the things that have impacted me over the years include:
... not spending time praying...not spending time reading and studying my Bible... not knowing "enough" scripture...not being forgiving...not DOING enough for the Lord... being stuck in a bad habit...not doing enough for others...not being like???(a fellow Christian who seems to have it all together for the Lord)...being or having been too sinful.... not attending a church or attending irregularly..... or, you name it.

There are MANY reasons that we can conjure up to keep us from being confident children of God. Most of us have experienced guilt over any number of those reasons.... reasons that when expressed by a non-Christian friend, we readily jump in and encourage them to seek Jesus, trust Him as their Savior, and become free of sin and the death sin causes. And yet, for some reason, we still need to remind ourselves that this has already happened for us!

In my first blog, you've already read that I John 3:20 reassures us that even when our hearts condemn us (feel guilty) "God is greater than our hearts.... and we have confidence towards God.." That's not to say we should never have guilt or that there's something wrong about us when we do. After all, if our conscience does not prick us when needed, we would not change and grow. God's refining of us could not work. However, constant guilty feeling over things that God has already forgiven are one of the Evil One's tools to keep us miserable and ineffective for the Lord.

A Pastor/friend of mine in Raton, NM was the first to share with me the illustration of faith as a spiritual muscle. Just as we are born with every physical muscle that we will need during our lifetime, so are we born with our muscle of faith in our spiritual birth. Yes, God gives us our measure of faith. (Romans 12:3) If we never walked or exercised in any way or only so little that we didn't grow and mature physically, our muscles wouldn't support us and our bodies would be crippled. So it is with faith. If we don't exercise our faith through scripture, prayer, thanksgiving, helping others, and Christian fellowship, we're cheating ourselves (and God) of its development. Are we still His, yes, but we are not the confident children we can be.

So, if you believe that you need more scripture study, prayer, thanksgiving, compassionate doing, etc., you probably do. The Holy Spirit is prodding you onward. However, if you're feeling guilty because you're not doing as much as someone you know, or that God requires more of you before He'll save you, then God's voice is probably not the one you're hearing. Each of us is unique, wonderfully made. (Psalms 139:14) Each of us is a necessary part of His Body. Each of us has our personal measure of faith to feed, exercise, and strengthen.

God wants us to grow, that's the natural flow of a healthy developing life. Do we need to grow in order to be more like Jesus? YES! We aren't complete without Him. So, take the time. MAKE the time to spend in His Word, in prayer, and sharing Him with others. It's a "doing" thing in order to grow our BEING His.

God bless you in your exercise!