Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Growing Maturity

Hebrews 6v1 “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity …”

We are familiar with the process and benefits of maturing – whether it is a bottle of fine wine or a person. To quote Wikipedia “As a wine starts to mature, its bouquet will become more developed and multi-layered.” The good news for us Christians is that we mature like that wine.

So I must ask myself as a follower of Christ, “Am I staying where I started, or am I developing?” It takes no special situation to grow older, but it takes the right environment to mature well: wine is best matured in a dark, cool environment. In contrast, a Christian is best matured in a light, warm environment – the light of the truth of Christ and the warmth of the love of Christ.

So I ask myself, “Am I placing myself in the right environment?” Of course, you and I face difficult natural environments, but that is not the point. It is our spiritual environment that brings maturity. How does this work? As we marinade in the truth and love of Christ, our hearts and minds are transformed. We marinade in His truth and love as we meditate on His Word, dwell in prayer, soak in worship.

But there is more, because real maturity is achieved as we then exercise that new spiritual life in the challenging situations we naturally face. This lesson is clear with respect to Jesus: “he learned obedience from what he suffered.” (Hebrews 5v8). It is not that Jesus was previously disobedient (see Luke 2v51), but that the real depth of obedience is learned when you submit to do something you really do not want to do.

May the Lord, in his grace, enable you and I to move on to spiritual maturity.

With love and blessing,

Roland