It takes a long time to grow up…

Becoming mature as a Christian does not happen instantly. Salvation, forgiveness, justification adoption into His family and many aspects of the Christian experience happens in a blink of an eye but the goal to be transformed into the image or reflection of Jesus Christ does not happen overnight. Like a mighty sculpture, there is much to be chipped away that is not like Jesus.

Today’s devotional likens it to the growth of a baby or the maturing of an apple. Both are what they should be from beginning to end, yet the baby cannot do what a grown person can do. Nor can the beginning of an apple mean it is fit to put in a pie.

Babies and apples, like Christians, cannot make themselves grow. We do have a part to play — that is, I need to be willing and cooperate with the Holy Spirit who feeds and nurtures me through the Word of God and fellowship with other Christians. Growth is enhanced through obedience as well, just as a child who runs and plays becomes stronger. If the assignments from God increase in difficulty, this is like graduating to the gym, working harder and increasing in wisdom as well as in understanding the perfection of God’s will.

Yet I know that age and experience must not underestimate the power of the world, the flesh, and the enemy to tip me over in my desire and effort to be mature.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)

The goal is reached only as Jesus appears to me and I see Him as He is. Until then, I cannot see Him clearly, even at my age and with years of experience living as His child:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:11–12)

When that day comes, all that is not like Jesus will be gone, but more and more I realize how much of me is not like Jesus. As the Spirit works, the Bible tells me that my understanding of what that means have often been off base. I once thought that maturity meant things like always knowing the answers to perplexities, always praising God publicly, praying with great fervor, being a leader of others, etc. but the Lord keeps reminding me of this passage:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:1–2)

Doing good works is not as lofty as I once thought. It is simple, like being “submissive to rulers and authorities” (Titus 3:1) or raising children, or showing hospitality, or washing the feet of God’s people, or caring for the afflicted (1 Timothy 5:9–10).

The focus is not what I do, but the purity of heart in which it is done. That means none of it is for personal glory, or to pat myself on the back, or to draw attention to me, or feed my ego in any way. Jesus did not come to earth for any of that. He came to save the lost, even to die so we could live. No self-gratification but only to obey the Father and He endured “for the joy set before Him” when He would be seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

His works were perfect in every stage of the occurrence, but not complete until He declared as He died, “It is finished.” Even on my death bed, I will never be able to make the same claim unless I am perfectly mature. By an act of faith, I can put myself into the hands of the Lord, and then, by a continuous exercise of faith, keep myself there, even be made “fit for every good work” yet that total purity of Christlikeness will not be mine until I see Him face to face.

PRAY: Lord, this is why I long to see You. I know that it is in seeing You I will be perfected, and all that me-stuff will no longer be my worst enemy. Such a wonderful hope. Thank You.