Stepping Up For Growth

When you step up for growth you step into more of the fullness of God. As you go higher with your faith, the character of Christ grows deeper in your soul. We all come to Christ as spiritual babes-mere infants in Christ because we're "born again." But infants needs to grow. 1 Peter 2:2-3, reads: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. Naturally, milk is for babes, and meat is for the mature. Christian babes need the spiritual milk of the Word...so they can grow in their salvation. I am a subscriber to Essence magazine, but it doesn't do the body good from a spiritual perspective. Stepping up is growing up your faith. For Christians to grow up in their faith, they need to crave the pure spiritual milk of the Word of God. Peter tells us in the scriptures that when you truly taste Him (Jesus), you will crave Him. But, Babes need to mature before they can eat meat. For example, I have watched parent's sometime let their babes suck on a small piece of meat because they didn't have teeth to chew met. Growing babes don't need milk anymore, but don't have teeth to eat meat. Many believers are "betweener." they don't need spiritual milk, but they aren't ready for the meat of the word of God. The "milk" of the Word refers to what Jesus Christ did on earth - His birth, life, teaching, death, burial, and resurrection. The "meat" of the Word refers to what Jesus Christ is now doing in heaven as our high priest . We grow... on the basis of His unfinished work in heaven. There comes a time when Christians need to be weaned off of the milk. Stepping up for growth is advancing beyond the elementary teaching of the Word. We know that milk is not adequate for a growing child, it won't put meat on their bones, it won't strengthen their muscles, and it won't provide all of the needed nutrition. In the same way, growing Christians will need to advance beyond the basic knowledge of their faith, and began going deeper into what it means to be a mature Christian. Growing up is not without its challenges. Just like there are natural barriers between infancy & maturity, there are natural barriers to spiritual growth. The reason we have so many betweeners is because of the natural barriers to spiritual growth. The moment you decide to grow, you will discover that it takes Commitment. Commitment is a HUGE barrier for people today. People want relationships, but not marry; people want to attend Church, but not join the church. Spiritual growth starts with one commitment after another, after another. The next natural barrier is Consistency. When you commit to grow to the next level, you need to stay Consistent. Consistency is what accelerates your spiritual growth. Commitment is good, but Consistency is key! Another natural barrier to our growth is a spiritual rut. Even when you commit & when you're consistent, you can fall into a spiritual rut. When that happens, you shake up your commitment & shake up your consistency with a challenge. From time to time, we need to be challenged in our spiritual walk. We need to be challenged in our commitments. We need to be challenged in our consistency. We need to step it up. That's what challenges are all about. Here's a rule of thumb about spiritual growth, you have to take responsibility for it! What is the next step you need to take right now to accelerate your spiritual growth?