Arrested Development

“For though by now you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and have come to need milk rather than solid food.”

— Hebrews 5:12

Babies are universally loved and we are drawn to them at whatever their age. But if we visit a newborn and then come back in six months and that baby is still the same size as he was at birth, we know something is seriously wrong. Something is interfering with that baby’s development.

I’m afraid there are some people in our churches today who are suffering from arrested development. They haven’t grown much. Oh, I think the average church member probably grows to be the equivalent of about a five-year-old. You know, a five-year-old can do a lot of things. He can throw a baseball and run around and ride a tricycle and get into some mischief and talk and do a lot of things.

There are a whole lot of things he can’t do. And spiritually I think people sort of grow to about that point. They learn sort of the basics of Christianity. They know the Lord’s Prayer and most of the Apostles’ Creed and probably at least six of the Commandments and a few selected verses that aren’t too long to memorize. Then they decide that now this will get them along and get them by and they forget all about growing at that point. It is a case of arrested development. But that is not what the Bible calls us to do.

Lord, give me strength for today to move beyond shallow spirituality. Thank You for the means of growth. Help me to actively use them. Show me anything in my life that may possibly be holding me back from growing in You…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE
CAN MATURE SPIRITUALLY.