Feeling Joy When You Don't Want To Series

So how do we grow beyond the baby stage as Christians? How do we become the people God wants us to be, mature and eating solid spiritual food?

Paul explains to the young pastor, Timothy, the way to spiritual maturity, “You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-16).

Children become stunted in their growth if they don’t get the right kind of food. Christians become stunted in their growth if they are not getting the right kind of food and the best food is right in this book, the Bible. It teaches us what is right and corrects our views and attitudes.

As we end 2007 and plan to enter 2008 I encourage all of you to take a look at your devotional life. How much time do you spend eating spiritual food? None of us would dream of going without eating at least once during the day but are we this particular when it comes to eating our spiritual food?

If you are do not have all the joy you wish. If you feel resentment toward some person. If you feel weak and helpless, then you need to assess your lack of spiritual food and if you are reading the right kind of material and how much time you spend in prayer each day.

One of the best ways to grow is to do what Jesus told the people, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45).

This is very powerful. When we are in conflict we are not praying for that person we are telling our friends the unjust and unfair things that have happened to us. We are telling them how hurt we feel. We are not praying, “Lord, show me where I am making the wrong assumptions. Lord, show me how I can help that other person in a positive way. Lord, I pray for that person to be at peace even as I am at peace.”

As we read the Bible, pray to our loving Father, and be conscious of the fact that we need to move from milk to solid food. When we run into a problem of lack of maturity we simply say, “I guess I thought that that person was on solid food, spiritually mature, but maybe they went back to a milk diet for a while, so I will treat them as a baby, not getting upset over what the baby does because that is the nature of babies, of children.” In these kinds of ways we grow spiritually and be the salt and light that Jesus longs for His followers to be.

At the end of this service as you leave I am giving every family a copy of Discipleship magazine. This is full of articles and resources on the Bible that will help you grow from depending on milk to eating solid spiritual food. I encourage you to fill out the card inside and subscribe. This will be one of the best decisions you will ever make. In addition we are planning a new discipleship track at New Hope that will help you grow in your spiritual journey. Jose Hernandez is our discipleship leader and he will come to the platform and explain some of which will take place next year. So that 2008 will be the best year yet as we grow together, the New Hope Community, to rely more and more on solid food and where the world marvels at us because that maturity is shown by the fulfillment of the words of Jesus, “Look at those, people, how they love each other. They must be followers of Jesus Christ.”