Active Involvement In Our Maturity In Christ…
When we read Acts 6:1-7, two of the questions we should ask the LORD are:
“How did Stephen get to the point where He was so full of wisdom & faith in You?
What can I do to actively partner with You as You grow such faith in me?”
My dear friends, we must be practically and strenuously involved in God’s processes of maturing & growing us in Christ…it will not happen by default or automatic wi-fi upload as we eat spiritual potato chips all day and sit on the spiritual couch all week…
- Who gets promoted to a job and then STOPS
working & growing in the role (or never starts!)?
. - Who gets chosen to be on a team and then stops training & practicing?
Oh how we often confuse retirement with promotion;
we are promoted in Christ when He opens our eyes & convicts us of sin
& regenerates us spiritually and moves us to repent & receive Him as our Savior & King–that is our glorious and undeserved promotion from death in sin to life in Christ…
…and it seems that subconsciously, many assume that means we are then retired,
that we stop (or never start!) carrying our cross and following Him,
that somehow life ends at rebirth…thank the LORD that is not the case!
- Sometimes, it really is the scholarship athlete that slacks off,
the blue-chip athletes who have been sought after
and told how great they are for years—
they get full of themselves and rely on personal talent alone,
and their effort & dedication lessens.
. - But it’s usually the walk-on players
the ones chosen to be on the team who basically know that
they really don’t deserve to be on the team,
they are smaller and slower with less talent…
those are usually the athletes that work the hardest.
Loved ones, none of us are scholarship players on Jesus’ team—
none of us are talented and deserve it, none of us have earned it.
We aren’t scholarship players—earning our place on the team by deserving it;
we are walk-ons,
being chosen by the Coach & Owner & Captain
because He of His own wisdom & pleasure.
He will make an athlete of us, oh yes He will transform us!,
but we aren’t talented athletes by ourselves/on our own…
Since we have been chosen by God by grace,
since we have received His undeserved choosing by faith, we are on His team…
AND NOW we work our tails off to grow and mature and develop,
under his watchful eye, compassionate care, firm discipline, wise instruction.
We listen and do what He says, we train hard,
not to try to get on the team
but because we are on the team and we want to thank Him for choosing us…
that is Christian growth and maturity.
And so the final question is:
will we put down the spiritual fried food,
will we move off the spiritual la-z-boy, and
will we be an active part each day of God maturing us His people?
