Faith

by Debbie Wallis

“So let’s do it don’t stop meeting together with other believers which some have gotten into the habit of doing so we can be confident that we’re presentable inside and out Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. Encourage each other, love and help out, don’t avoid worshiping together as some do but nudge each other to do what is right, especially as we see the days approaching,” Hebrews 10:25

The reason we attend church with other believers regularly is for teaching, fellowship, worship, communion, prayer and to build one another up in the faith

Participating in the body of Christ is fundamental to spiritual growth Teen’s like hanging out with other teens Their priorities start changing from time spent with their parents to time with their friends Although they still need parents, they don’t always want their instructions These are the days that rebellion can sneak in against their parents teaching The teen years are crucial years to making their parent standards their own choices Even though they think they’ve arrived, they have not quite reached maturity

As teens bodies grow into young men and women they want to be viewed as more mature than they are I remember always wanting to be older than I was. When I was around10, I longed to be a teenager and have a driver’s license Most kids play as if they are all grownup; whether it’s playing like they can drive, are mom and dad with dolls and trucks, police or doctors, or even super heroes Like wise, there are many Christians who hunger to have ministers before they’re spiritually mature In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he mentions this hunger, and shares a concern for those who fail to seek this maturity Chapter three begins with a reproach to believers since Paul could speak to them only as infants “I have had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn’t digest anything stronger,” I Cor. 3:2. God wants us to grow from the infant stage of spiritual milk into maturity stage of digesting meat However, just as we do in our flesh, there are truths in growing mature we have to remember

Teens may start passing up the healthy foods you serve and go for the junk food There‘s no fast version of the meat and maturity of God’s Word, there’s no short cuts You cannot listen to a partial radio program as you drive to work and expect to get the first hand nourishment from reading the Bible for yourself God wants to speak to you about you and He does this through His written Word in the Bible Learning from a Bible teaching pastor, watching a TV pastor or even reading this column each week is all great but you cannot mature completely in Christ without a personal relationship with Him through His Word, the Bible You cannot mature as a follower of Christ Jesus if He is one of your 2,439 Facebook “friends” That makes Jesus an acquaintance of yours, not a true friend you really spend time with.

Teens want to be viewed as more mature than they are but their actions shout “I’m not there yet!”

Immature Christians can jump from church to church seeking “feel good messages” and not learn to digest the meat of God’s Word. Paul stresses that the place where we grow is probably not the primary factor for our spiritual maturity “Who am I, and who is Apollos, that we should be the cause of a quarrel? Why, we’re just God’s servants, each of us with certain special abilities, and with our help you believed My work was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos’ work was to water it; but it was God, not we who made the garden grow in your heart,” I Cor 3:5-6 It isn’t too important whether we grow under Paul or Apollos because both play a part in God’s plan It isn’t so much the place where you grow that matters as it is allowing God to grow you, and you keep in relationship with God The truth of the scripture is if you and I have grown in some area of our faith beyond milk, and are ready for meat, we must teach the insight we have gained to those less mature instead of seeking more meat for ourselves As a baby we are fed, as a toddler we learn to feed our self, as a teen we are capable of feeding others.

Teens learn from a different view point as their world enlarges Friends who may not hold the same Christian faith, books they’re required to read for classes and teachers that influence them all can begin to challenge their belief The view that if a truth isn’t different, if it isn’t new, then it isn’t mature thinking for today’s world starts in filtering teens Newness is not a requirement for spiritual meat Simple childhood faith may be what God intends as the meat for your life. Less spiritually mature Christians can go through this same phase and start questioning their beliefs Unsaved friends will feed you doubt if you are not feeding them the Truth. Read your Bible everyday and remember its promises will be what gives you the boldness to stand firm

Teens can be into their outer appearance without considering the nutrients that it takes to be strong on the inside Most lack the maturity to think about long term health. Immature Christians can be compared to this stage of development by going through the motions of church, bible study or prayer. They know they need to grow spiritually but the long term reasoning may not have reached maturity

Teenagers can have a hard time with submission and respect because it doesn’t come naturally to anyone They may be stubborn, impulsive and inexperienced in their decisions. There can be times in our Christian maturity that we are just like teenagers. God may be calling you to do something that you just don’t want to do, so you rebellion against that calling He may want you to lay a habit down, join a Bible study or commit to regularly reading your Bible alone If you are to grow in maturity you have to put immature behavior aside It’s a choice Maturity in Christianity happens one day at a time

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers at the age of 17, resisted sexual temptation was falsely accused and thrown in prison but still obeyed God’s will and saw his vision come true David was a young man who sought God as a teen and never looked back Josiah came to the throne of Judah at the age of eighteen and had a difficult family background His father Amon and his grand-father Manasseh had both been evil kings, so Josiah was brought up in an environment of wickedness and intrigue, but we read that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord Daniel was a teenager when his country was over-run by the enemy and he was taken prisoner to Babylon; but even there, away from home influence, he stood firm for his principles, and eventually became a Minister of State Jeremiah at the age of 17, he was called by God to be a prophet in Israel Mary willingly became a teenage mother and raised the Son of God God can use you while you are growing spiritually. He looks for obedience and submission

It’s God’s will we are born again in our spirit and grow from infancy to wisdom Next week we’ll see the characteristics of a mature believer in Jesus Christ If you don’t have a Bible please contact me at sfadebbie@yahoo com and I will provide you one.