Ephesians 4:14-16 (MSG) “No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.”
Once we have gone through the process in our heads and finally made the commitment in our hearts to accept Christ as our Savior, he begins a new work in us right away. Just like the birth of a newborn baby, we are spiritually reborn the moment we allow Jesus into our hearts. Our old self is gone allowing Jesus to begin a transforming work in us. He is shaping us to be like him. But we have a role to play too...we must be obedient to his shaping process. We must not stay the way we are. We must take what we are learning and put it into practice.
The only way we can overcome our past is to truly give it to him and never look back again. Like babies, we continue to grow and learn every day. As babies move from crawling to walking to running we must do the same in our Christian walk. We must take our lead from Christ and learn from the example he set here on earth. We must continually be nourished through his word and aspire to love the way he loved. We must also help those who are young in the faith mature in their walk.
The experiences and hardships we face along our journey enable us to draw closer to Christ and rely on his sovereignty in our lives and in our circumstances. Learning from these experiences will allow us to, one day; help others who are facing similar circumstances. God will never waste a hurt. We can be certain of that. During times of adversity it’s tough to see God working… but He is using the pain to bring honor and glory to his name and draw us even closer to him in the process.
Related scripture: Psalm 46
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