When I Grow Up

By Rev. Dennis Fender

Let's Pray: Heavenly Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus to prepare me to receive from you everything you would have me know this day that I may be all you want me to be. I Thank You for all you have done, and are doing in my life. Help me now to grow in faith, as I trust you more each day. Amen.

As time goes by and we look back from whence we came, we remember the goals and aspirations of childhood. Oh, how many times we said, "When I grow up...I wanna be a______". So many things we finished this sentence with, so many times the ending changed. One day we wanted to be one thing, and next week we wanted something different. I can't begin to tell how many times my Mom and Dad grinned and shook their heads at my "confusion". Yet, this relationship between parent and child is the basis for this lesson.

Job 8:7 says, "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase". As the physical body is small at birth, so is the spiritual. Children are not born mature, neither are Christians. We all have a "begining", a starting point. But we cannot stay there. We cannot refuse to physically grow, but what about spiritually? How often we look at others and think, "GROW UP!" How often they look at us, and say the same thing. As the Lord Jesus took issue with the disciples over spiritual immaturity, he was not just grinning and shaking his head as my parents did. The Lord rebuked them openly, in public. I can remember my mother rebuking me openly, in public, with things like a switch, a board, or whatever was handy at the time. Yes, my mother truly believed in the "laying on of hands" concept, and practiced it as often as necessary. Always in love, always with my education in mind, that I "grow" from this teaching. So it is today with our Father in Heaven. He also wants us to grow; in faith in Him, and in love for Him and each other. This is something we must purpose to do.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Paul is saying there came a time when he had to choose how he would approach circumstances, deal with issues, and get through the trials of life. Can we say truthfully we have made that same determination? Or, are some of us still "thinking about it?" Is our walk, a walk of true faith, tried and tested faith? Have we learned anything from our trips around "life's mountain?" Have we grown through the firey trials? Or, are we still tossed about by fear, doubt, and unbelief?
It is through our relationship with God, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we grow. Just as there is a natural progression in physical growth, so it is in the spiritual, a progressive process. We learn from our expeirences. We learn to believe, to trust, unto obedience. Obedience brings about growth. Growth ushers in boldness to flex our spiritual muscles. Let me ask, "What would we be willing to do for the Lord, if we knew we could not fail?" If I was so, rooted, grounded, and built up in the word of God-in my faith in God; that it would not matter what He told me to do, I would just do it. Think about the concept. To be able to trust God that much. Not ourselves, God! In this day, when all around us, the adversary opposses the Kingdom of God; yet, seeing God is still faithful, still in control. He IS the same, yesterday, today, and forevermore. God is not the great I was, nor the great I will be, HE IS THE GREAT I AM! Unfortunately, too many of God's children are still, what they "were". Some have even lost ground.
Let's ask ourselves, "Do I have a when I grow up...I want to be a_____, attitude.?" Have I even considered where I am, and compared my position to the word of God? Am I where God wants me to be?
In 1872, in a public park in Dublin, England, Evangelist Henry Varley said to DL Moody, "The world has yet to see what God will do with, and for, and through, and in, and by, the man who is fully consecrated to Him."
May God challenge us by whatever means necessary to bring about growth. Luke 2:52 says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." When I grow up, I wanna be jus' like Jesus....Amen!