Do you ever have days or moments when you think back to how you behaved in your younger years as a child? Were you free from responsibilities or did you just choose not to be responsible? Did you say and do things that were impulsive without any real idea of the consequence? Was your lack of knowledge and experience a good thing or not? When did you do the most childish things? Was it yesterday?
I look at today’s verse from two perspectives:
• A child truly being young by age
• A person, no matter their age, growing in their journey of Christian faith!
I will be honest, when I was younger in years AND faith, I expected anyone who claimed to be a Christian to walk and talk with poise, never take a misstep in their faith or decisions…essentially I expected those who claimed to be truly devoted followers of Christ to be better than everyone else. It was difficult to see someone I knew who was claiming to be ‘all-in’ with Christ, making what I considered unGodly decisions one day and exalting the Lord the next day. Often I wanted something to happen to them so they would have a “wake up” moment to get back on track. Now I realize that was my perspective of how they should live their life; I wanted to see a changed person because of my own childish thought process. I am learning so much on my journey with God!
If we are on our journey of growth to becoming a mature man or woman of God…we are going to go through a process. And just like adolescent teenagers, it takes some people longer to mature than others. If you remember being a teenager,
• it can be super difficult to hold onto what we learned and know as the “right” thing to do.
• Even though we think we have it all together, it is at that point when we are actually struggling to keep the wheels from flying off, that we often push away our support system.
Those moving through the ‘adolescent years’ in their faith often need the greatest support, as they are being bombarded with internal and external questions and challenged by worldly pressures.
“We must pray, not run away” during these times. This is where I could have completely lost my faith and my sense of being worthy of God. To be encouraged by unbelievers and condemned by believers at the same time is a terrible thing. And, this is where we seem to lose those young in their faith. If we can endure and overcome those experiences, we grow, ready to take on the next challenge with greater confidence, each time stepping away from our childish thoughts and actions.
And this can happen to a person pursuing God at any time in their life. Spiritual age and calendar age are two different things, but the process can be very similar. Remember, age is just a number! The closer we draw near to God, our greatest supporter, the stronger we become on our own and in our faith. Don’t push Him away and don’t push away those who want to help you grow your faith as a Christian!
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Step forward boldly in your journey as a child of God, faithfully growing in your actions, understandings and thoughts, so you can become a mature leader in this world to help those who are about to embark on their own journey of faith! All of the steps you take may help those yet to begin their own growing up with God!
May God bless you!