Walk-on Wednesday - Grow Up - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Walk-on Wednesday. By Hump Day, we are struggling, but we believe a good devotion can strengthen us to finish the week strong. 

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. Hebrews 5:12 NLT

Life had taken a sad turn.

My job of six years had vanished. Searching for a new one became a discouraging challenge. Months went by before a call finally came from a school district forty miles away wanting to know if I’d be interested in working as a teacher’s assistant. At this point, I was willing to try anything.

Little did I know the children I’d be working with were autistic. Their bodies were the normal size for their age, but their actions weren’t. Only one could go to the bathroom by himself. The others wore diapers. At their age, they should have been talking, but all they could do was make sounds. When other kids were watching movies and playing video games, these kids wanted to watch Barney the purple dinosaur. Normal children their age could feed themselves, but these children had to be spoon-fed like babies.

The recipients of this letter had been believers for many years. So long, in fact, that they should have known God’s Word well enough to teach others. But they couldn’t. They were still babies. They needed children’s Bible stories when they should have been teaching others the meat portions of God’s Word. They needed bottle feeding instead of spoon-feeding.

Growing up is fun but challenging and difficult as well. Many times I’ve wished I could return to the younger years when Mom and Dad took care of everything. Growing up in Christ is no different.

Physical growth happens naturally; spiritual growth takes effort. We won’t grow if we don’t try. Doing so requires being countercultural. We can’t sand with the grain because according to Jesus most of the grains are going in the wrong direction.

Through spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible study, meditation, and fellowship with like-minded believers, we train our conscience to be sensitive to the pricking of God’s Spirit. This takes time, but the reward is that we’ll grow up in Christ and be used in ways we wouldn’t be had we remained a babe. No longer will we be blown about by every new teaching that comes along. Neither will we find ourselves continually falling to the temptations of Satan. We will have matured.

What’s your spiritual age?

Prayer: Prod us, merciful Lord, to grow up in our faith walk so that we can be useful instruments of Yours.

Tweetable: Are you acting your spiritual age? 

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