Sometimes growth seems to take forever: learning a new language…getting your first driver’s license…breaking old habits…saving enough money to buy your first house.
Sometimes growth seems to go by in a nanosecond: those extra inches added to the waistline…the cost of living…another birthday…my granddaughter’s already walking!
Marks on the wall were a high priority for Kathie and me with our four children. We would regularly check their growth and celebrate each little increment upward. It seems like yesterday our kids were standing as tall as possible with their backs against the wall. We would carefully make a mark, then let them turn around to see it, and then celebrate their growth.
“Look, you’ve grown almost a half an inch!”
Imagine how weird would it have been if after carefully making the mark, Kathie and I shook our heads as our kids turned around, and said,
“Sorry honey, you’ve actually gotten shorter.”
When it comes to spiritual growth there are times when great strides are made. We are bounding forward in our understanding and applying of God’s word. We can’t get enough time in worship and fellowship. We are getting stronger in all areas.
But then there are times when our spiritual growth can not only slow down, but stop, and then actually start to go backwards. We aren’t reading God’s word, in fact we have forgotten what it says. Our passion for worship and fellowship is now put into other things. We are getting weaker in all areas.
Spiritual growth happens with the help and power of the Holy Spirit.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
For Christians, this kind of growth essential, but it’s not automatic. It can be hindered. Instead of progressing and moving forward, there can be “backsliding.” Listen to this…
…you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:11–14)
By reason of use
It’s possible for someone to be “dull of hearing” become like baby who can only drink milk. But it’s also possible for someone “to have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Becoming “skilled” in the word, and having a hunger for the meat of the word.
There’s a wall in heaven with marks on it, dates on it, and your name on it. Jesus is looking at it with you. Where’s the last mark?
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