Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
Ephesians 4:14 NLT
In the Oratory garden we have a number of fruit trees. Every spring their future harvest is heralded by the appearance of blossom, which is beautiful, but only the promise of what is yet to come. In much the same way, we begin our Christian journey as blossom. Bright and beautiful expressions of the future promise of God seeded within each one of us.
Finding Christ is but the first stage; the end goal is to grow up into maturity. Every one of us who has passed through childhood, into adolescence and then the stages of adulthood recognises that even at a physical and emotional level, maturing is tough. It demands decisions and constant readjustments as those decisions, despite being well-intentioned, prove to be no longer appropriate. Equally, in our pursuit of God we are to mature from childhood to adulthood.
In childhood, we entrust ourselves to the decisions of others. However, slowly we develop the desire and ability to make decisions for ourselves. Our lives are directly shaped by the decisions we take.
Discerning God’s path and purpose for my life is my responsibility. After all, I will have to give an account of my life to God. Of course, my choices may well have been constrained through circumstances beyond my immediate control, yet my response is always determined by me. Will the blossom that expressed the first fruits of my God life actually develop into the harvest for which it was the precursor? There are significant fallers from our fruit trees, unripe fruit that never fulfils its ultimate destiny.
Maturity is primarily a consequence of desire and decision. Desire is woken by many elements which form an essential part of your life’s course.
QUESTION
How do you decide when to pursue such desire and when to quench it? This is the process of maturing in God.
PRAYER
May my life with you grow and bring forth much fruit. May I not be blown by the winds of change and become a faller, but remain in Christ, growing to maturity.