Grow Up!

Want to improve, get better, maximize your potential?  See what Ephesians says about growing up.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, be patient with us.  Sometimes it's hard to notice that we are growing and changing for the better.  Sometimes it feels like we are just revisiting the same issues in our lives over and over again.  Remind us that, with faith and trust in your grace, you are refining us, reshaping us, remaking us in your amazing image!  Give us great faith!  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Ephesians 4: 14-16

Comments

When I finally gave up baseball, it was largely because of the post-game "chats" that the coach held for 33 minutes after each game.  He would go on ad nauseum about our many mistakes, telling us repeatedly that if we wanted to win we needed to try harder to do things differently.  His vision of Little League baseball was to make us all fit for the World Series.  My vision was to have a good time with my friends and learn a little baseball.  It's no surprise that at the end of that season, I moved on to drumline and track. 

Looking back on that experience with 27 years of hind sight, I can see the value in pausing to review what is working and what isn't.  Sometimes after a project, we need to step back and take time to improve our awareness of what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong.  It's good to check your way points once in a while to see that you are still heading the right direction. 

Life with Jesus is no different.  Yes, it is fun and enjoyable, filled with many rich blessings of relationships and opportunities to make a difference in people's lives for the Kingdom.  And, yes, we still need to stop, take a good hard look at ourselves next to Jesus, and confess the ways that we live that still are not in line with his.  Then we need to receive his life-changing grace again and the power of his Holy Spirit, and move forward in his footsteps.

We need to be told the truth about ourselves, however painful or glorious that is.  That's how we will grow up to be like Jesus.  "We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ..."  Let us give thanks to God for those in our lives who help us see the truth about ourselves next to Jesus.  They may annoy us, but they are God's grace in action, perfecting us in Jesus Christ. 

Life Questions

1.  Do I come to God in worship, prayer or Bible study open to knowing the truth about how I am a sinner in need of grace or do I come merely to be justified, comforted, and pumped up?
2.  Who is in my life that tells me the truth about myself?  How can I purposefully ask them to help me be accountable to my life with Jesus?

Prayer

Fairest Lord Jesus, who sees through our every deception and pretense with eyes of blazing truth and love, burn away our impurities so that we may be more pure in your sight, more empty of sin and full of love.  In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.

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