Tag Archives: faith

Maturing into You

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Story is excerpt from my book: It’s Still Relative, The Word of God for Today’s World

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. We’ll call her Maggie. She was saying that her grown daughter sometimes act less mature than her six-year-old. It seems that no matter how much Maggie or her husband request their older daughter ACT like an adult, she just isn’t willing to take on the responsibilities of being a grown up.

My friend lamented, “‘I don’t think she will ever grow up. I don’t thing she will ever be a responsible adult. I don’t know what we did wrong, but obviously we didn’t raise her right or something. So, we’re just going to have to cut her off and see how she does. At some point, she’s going to have to stand on her own.”‘

As Maggie and I were talking a though struck me deep in my spirit. How many times has God said, “I wonder if she or he will ever spiritually grow up? I wonder when they will learn their lessons and start acting like the Christians I have raised them to be? I wonder if they will ever stop through temper tantrums when they don’t get their way or things don’t seem to be working out they way they want them to. I wonder if they will ever learn to trust me.”

Maturing is Christ as Christians is about trusting God; His word and the finished work of Christ Jesus. Without that trust, we can’t mature into the people God has called, anointed and appointed us to be for and in the Kingdom of God.

Maturing in our Christian walk is not easy but it is necessary and there’s no way around it. (Deut. 6:17 – 18). This blog is a part of my maturity. The daily prayers I send out are a part of my maturity. Starting a non-profit is a part of my maturity. These are things I never wanted to do, never thought anyone would read and under normal circumstances I would NEVER have the courage to do them but, God is maturing me.

So, over the next several days I’m going to use this blog to explore our spiritual maturity. You are welcome to join me!

Doubt

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One day I was watching the Hercules cartoon. Hades wanted to stop Icarus, one of Hercules friends, from going to a dance. Hades imps were trying to figure out what to do in order to stop Icarus when Hades said, “I got it. I know just who to send.” 

In the next scene you saw a big cobra going through the streets of the city making his way to Icarus’ house. When the snake got to the house, all he did was stand in the door way and cast a shadow on Icarus, hissed once or twice and left. The snake didn’t touch Icarus, didn’t say anything to him and didn’t threaten him in any way, but the normally overly confident Icarus was reduced to a scared coward hiding in the corner.

The name of the snake was Doubt.

Doubt can cause you and I to act just like Icarus. We go from being fully pursued that God can do all things, to questioning God’s ability meet our needs.

In James 1:6, God’s word says, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

Doubt is the exact opposite of faith. You can’t see either faith nor doubt but, if you are in Christ you must have faith. Doubt comes into our minds to make us think that God can’t provide what we need.  Doubt comes to make us think that we’ve done something wrong that is going to make God turn his back on us. Doubt also comes so we don’t please God because in Hebrews 11:6 God’s word says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

You can’t have both doubt and faith. It’s either/or. Please choose faith.