The Journey To Maturity

THE JOURNEY TO MATURITY

Ephesians 4:11

He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

‘That we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ’

Too many live by other peoples gauge – by someone else’s measuring stick – by someone else’s value meanwhile failing to see their very own potential

When it comes to measuring sticks – the only measuring stick is Christ and who and what He has created, purposed and pre-destined us to be

Not what or who others think we should be

Quite often when we measure ourselves against someone else we tend to discourage ourselves because we tend to pick those that are really doing extremely well and we measure against that and we fall short – we feel like we never ever measure up and we fail to see the awesome potential of the way God has created us

When we measure up against others we will only ever end up running at a fraction of our potential – we end up living with a near enough is good enough mentality – we select good over best – comfort is preferred than perseverance – faith is acknowledged but not activated – the word is memorised but it is not mobilised in our lives – intentions are high but initiatives are low – the opportunities are seen but they are not secured – consistently living an average, normal, uneventful life just living by the status quo

We need to realise that God has given us incredible capacity, power and influence and when we begin to use Christ as our measure only then will we realise the fullness of that capacity, power and influence – Christ is the key to our full potential being realised

2 Peter 1:3 - Growing in the Knowledge of God

As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature. So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life’ – our full potential is realised in Christ but it is also realised as we make every effort to apply the promises of God to our lives

This all talks to me of the process of growth in our lives.

Ephesians 4:11 – ‘that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord’.

2 Peter 1 – ‘And finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive – effective – the more you will live at your full potential and not at a fraction of your potential.

A successful life does not just arrive but it is built – it is a growing process – being mature in God is a growth journey – measuring our life to the life of Christ is a growth journey – a life that is influential, successful, productive, effective and at its fullest God potential requires us to go through stages of growth.

Just as a child grows to become an adult and goes through growing pains – we too will experience the pains associated with growth as we measure our life to Christ – but with the pains will come great victories, moments of breakthrough, testimonies of Gods favour and faithfulness, with the pains will come great maturity, wisdom and opportunity

Growth can be painful and it can be an irritation but when we commit to the journey of growing in to full maturity growth becomes our greatest friend

Today I want to look at some principles for personal growth.