Maturity is a Process - September 13, 2013

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:13
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Colossians 3:10
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Christlikeness is your eventual destination, but your journey will last a lifetime. This journey involves believing (through worship), belonging (through fellowship), and becoming (through discipleship). Every day Jesus wants you to become a little more like him: "You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you." (Colossians 3:10a NCV)

Today we're obsessed with speed, but God is more interested in strength and stability than swiftness. We want the quick fix, the shortcut, the on-the-spot solution. We want a sermon, a seminar, or an experience that will instantly resolve all problems, remove all temptation, and release us from all growing pains.

But real maturity is never the result of a single experience, no matter how powerful or moving. Growth is gradual. The Bible says, "Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." (2 Corinthians 3:18b Msg)

Iunno I feel liike this one's a very specific reiteration of the last devo on how we don't have to hurry to become "Christian".

Just not clicking it for me.

I think this message relates to not only our spiritual growth, but also all aspects of life. In anything we do, we will always have a better chance of succeeding if we take it steady and consistent instead of rushing into it with a flame of excitement and then fizzling out after a short time. That's what I do a lot of the time as far as Christianity and honoring God goes. Especially at things like retreats where everything around us is God centered and we're taken away from all the distractions of the world. I tend to pray hard and feel like God is really calling me to change at intense Christian events, and then slowly returning back to my normal un-godly routine. I mean, it's not like I'm doing horrible things most of the time- it's just that I don't consistently talk to God. For me it all comes in waves of strong faith and then falls out into laziness and ignoring God. I think the main thing that we need to get out of this is that we can never grow closer to God if we don't take steps to knowing him more- even if they are tiny little baby steps.

I agree with Jake that this is the same message as yesterday's devo, just that it is reworded (spiritual growth vs maturity).

Of the three things that the devo mentionned (worship, fellowship, discipleship), I think that the one that would be the most important for us to focus on would be discipleship. The reason I say this is because we already worship and have times of fellowship, but discipleship is in my opinion something that is harder to maintain. Actually following Christ and doing what God wants us to do in our lives is something that we are less exposed to, mainly because though we are all following the same God, each of our purposes are different.
I also think that discipleship is harder to keep track of in shorter terms.

But anyways, yeah, be consistent but don't forget to take steps forward towards our ultimate goal to be Christ-like.

As we become more and more like Christ, I think its extremely important to ensure that we have goals in mind along the way. And once that small goal is achieved, we have to realize on how and why we've changed. If we don't, we've haven't gotten anywhere. Back to square one. Taking time to reflect our relationship with God is a great reminder to keep that rhythm going, a steady flow to living a God-honouring life. Almost to the point where it'd be uncomfortable breaking it. I love how clear it is to see that God would want quality over quantity from us. Almost always, the basics is the best place to start when we want to get our spiritual lives "running" again.

Personally, sometimes it feels weird working for something that can never be 100% achieved. To completely understand the bible inside and out would be impossible in a lifetime, just like this devotion mentions. But, would it make sense if we could know everything just like God does? Another reason why is so that we could depend on one another, keeping each other accountable for their faith.

What i got from this devo is that growing in faith and maturing in faith happens over time. We cannot rely ONLY on retreats and praise nights to make our faith grow because growing ourselves does not happen in a day or two. Its like learning. It is IMPOSSIBLE to try and learn everything for a semester in a couple of days. thats ridiculous, instead we learn it over the course of a couple of months. But for us grow in spirit and mature, it takes place over our whole life time.
Being like Christlike is our final destination, and the journey to achieve that goal will take our entire life. It is not a one day event

Basically the same idea as yesterday's devo, but focusing on spiritual maturity. What I learned is that there is no rush in becoming closer with God because He will do things at the pace He believes you shall go. Also that taking your time while growing with God will be beneficial to you in the long run because you will be able to think about everything you do and fix your mistakes when you feel you are doing something wrong. But when you take things fast, your spiritual growth will not be very sturdy.

"God is more interested in strength and stability than swiftness." Like yesterday's devotional, this devo stresses the fact that spiritual growth is a very gradual process and does not come quickly even with a powerful experience. Since God's primary desire is for us to grow and be strong in Him, the process is slow and gradual. Each moment we spend with God helps us become more like Him and moves us along our path of spiritual growth.

Similar to the last devo, things cannot be rushed. We have been given this long life to discover, learn and gradually grow. All of our goals are to be able to reach that certain point in our faith where we have a perfect relationship with God. Of course, our journey to him will definately have flaws but don't expect that God will do all of the growing for us, we are the ones who are trying to get to him. Reach and seek him everyday and one day you will look back and realized how much you have grown.
I like to think of it as a flower. Until its ready to bloom, there is continuous growth. Eventhough it may not seem to be making progress right in an instant, it is slowly getting to that time. Soon, it blossoms. It came from a small seed to a fully grown flower.
It may sound cheesy, but be that flower. ;D

~Audrey~

We can't expect our faith to soar overnight. Strong faith is not a result of one single event or epiphany but rather a collection and progression of many events complied together to help us become who we will eventually become. Experiences along the way will nurture us in our faith, and the more time we take on growing our faith through patience, I think there will be better outcomes for us to see.
Also, we can not compare our place in our journey of faith to others.
The quality is more important than how fast we get there. I think today we focus on things to become quicker, we hardly focus on the present we're always looking to what is to eventually come. But if we don't focus on improving our small actions and decisions today it can affect all our tomorrows and our progress.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23