Growing Up in God

When I go to exercise, my friend, from time-to-time, would ask me to change my routine in order to shock my muscles so that they would not get used to the repetitive motions and gain nothing. Sure enough, every time I changed my routine, I always went home with new muscle sores. The term “no pain, no gain” is really true.

What happens in the natural can be a picture of the spiritual. God also wants us to grow our spiritual muscles. From time-to-time, He brings us into a new situation with bigger obstacles in order to grow our faith. Naturally, we don’t like to change — we prefer to be in our comfort zone because we do not like pain. We build our security based on our experience, and certainly not too many of us like to take risks. We read the Bible and we listen to sermons. We even agree with the message the pastor preaches, but as soon as we face reality, we seem to lose the power to trust in the Lord. Why? It is because of tradition.

Thus, the tradition that has been handed down from generation to generation nullifies the word of God. And we do many things like that (see Mk.7:13). All the customs, rituals, beliefs, habits — which includes the skills and experiences we have built for years — could wash out our faith in the living and powerful Word of God. No wonder that from time-to-time, God would do something completely beyond our routine in order to shock our spiritual muscles to grow.

Remember the story when the disciples went through a furious storm and Jesus was sleeping? Can you imagine? The professional fishermen had to wake up a humble carpenter because their boat was covered in waves (see Mt.8:23-25)! That means these professionals went through an intense storm they had never experienced before. They had all the skill, strength, and years of experience that could even fill pages of their resumes, but all that was not enough to calm the waters. They were very familiar with the lake — they “knew it all.” They had security on their boat, but now their security was sinking.

Jesus allowed that to happen so that the disciples would come out of their routines and change their fear into faith.

Do you feel as if Jesus has ignored your request? Does it seem as if you are going through a situation beyond what you can handle? Have you been sinking into discouragement and you feel that Jesus doesn’t care?

Cry out to Him earnestly, press through your doubts, surrender your fear and renew your trust in the Lord, who is the sovereign Lord over your circumstances.

“There is an enormous difference between growing old in the Lord and growing up in Him. One is automatic and requires no effort at all … just aging. But the other is never automatic or easy. It calls for personal discipline, continual determination, and spiritual desire.” (Chuck Swindoll)