There is a beautiful, mysterious cooperation that takes
place in this relationship between God and me. I feast on His Word, and He
strengthens me through it. I walk with the wise, and He makes me grow wise. I
step out in trust and obedience, and He increases my faith.
I'm learning, though, that growing up into Christ takes time
just like growing into an adult does. I don't expect my three-year-old friends
to discuss Shakespeare with me, and I don't expect a little sapling in my yard
to turn into a shade tree in one year. Yet sometimes I expect myself to jump
ahead in spiritual maturity, in holiness, forgetting that it's the Holy Spirit
who causes me to grow. The Bible encourages us to long for spiritual growth.
There is a beautiful, mysterious cooperation that takes place in this
relationship between God and me. I feast on His Word, and He strengthens me
through it. I walk with the wise, and He makes me grow wise. I step out in
trust and obedience, and He increases my faith.
The apostle Peter tells us, "Like newborn infants, long
for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if
indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Peter 2:2–3). The apostle
Paul also encourages us to grow up spiritually "so that we may no longer
be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather,
speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the
head, into Christ" (Epheians 4:14–15).
My prayer for us is that, through the work of the Holy
Spirit, day by day, we will steadily grow into more beautiful versions of
ourselves, more Christ-like versions of ourselves. We were made to reflect
God's glory, to bear His image, to look like Him, to be holy like Him. That's
something worth longing for, don't you think?
Written By Jennifer Cortez
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