Recent Barna research reveals that most churchgoers and clergy can’t clearly define what spiritual maturity is, and they don’t how to strive toward it. What are your thoughts on spiritual maturity and how a person can mature in Christ?
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isaiah2634 on July 7, 2009 at 4:14 am
Spiritual maturity? This is a tough one. I feel unworthy commenting on this but I guess I can share from the perspective of someone who’s yearning for “it”. I don’t think we can define true spiritual maturity by human standards. My constant prayer is that “I” will decrease and Christ will increase in me more and more each day….To die to oneself daily by feeding as much in God’s Word…. Sharing as much as I can about God to others… Doing God’s best in all situations…. constantly seeking God’s will, purpose, grace…so that I can be a better witness for Him. To be humbled by Him everyday and to never lose sight of what He has done on the cross… Those are the small steps of faith I can take each day but I would definitely need every ounce of God’s grace for each step…
mstigall on July 7, 2009 at 6:30 am
Wonderful insight,
I too yearn for spiritual maturity and I think we can learn so much from looking into the life of Jesus and seeing His approach to living.
The Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-16 gives us a glimpse at what I believe to be a spiritual mature life.
msroby on July 7, 2009 at 8:43 am
What are your thoughts on spiritual maturity and how a person can mature in Christ?
First it starts with a person who makes the first move to come to Christ.
Then it’s by the Grace of God that we opened up to the world of God, through reading His Word.
The growth is a lot of times done in baby steps. We love Christ and want to be pleasing to Him so we read His Word and begin to follow [as we understand it at the time, but often times we learn more and more and more and find that the deeper the understanding of the Word, the deeper the maturity.] When we understand that it is only by God’s grace and reading the Word that brings us to be more Christlike in ourselves, do we begin our maturity road and learn who we have been, who we are and where and who we want to be, then we know that the maturity comes in time. It is God’s own personal training place. We will learn to stop looking at things the way we can see them with our earthly eyes and start learning to see them through Christ’s spiritual eyes. It will shock us, it will make us feel inadequate, it will make us sad, but that is our own feelings that we must not give into. We must get past our emotions [even forgetting them] and see that glory for Christ is seeing that it is glorious that He died for us, so that, we are able to change only through Christ, to become more Christlike in all of our ways and move toward that maturity. It is more than just being good in the world. It’s a choice-made sacrafice to do what Jesus wants you to do in any given circumstances of our lives and that requires a deeper closeness to God to know what that is. We will each have a separate path in doing what it will take to become more mature in Christ. We are guided by the words that come through the Word, from Christ himself that will take us on the journey we need to be on.
It is never what we can do alone in our own thoughts. It’s only by following the way of Christ in his Word that can even help a person start their journey.
A person can begin a jouney such as this when they understand and can say: “I know nothing at all but Jesus knows the way.” The secret? Well it’s to believe it, not just say it.
By the way, the first part of the question asked today is a trick question. What are OUR thoughts on spirituality? The trick is that if we are true in a path of maturity to God, the Word, Jesus Christ as our Savior and the Holy Spirit our way of hearing & seeing into God’s world, then we have already first learned that OUR thoughts & OUR opinions don’t matter, only God’s does. Everyone loves to give their opinion & thoughts because we see so many others doing it that we don’t stop to think like Christ, and know that the only thing that does matter is what God says.
mikan14 on July 7, 2009 at 9:08 am
thank God for all of your posts..they are all true and inspiring 🙂
I know until now I’m not that matured spiritually: I really have many things to learn. But someone told me, that it’ll take an eternity to attain that maturity. When we reach heaven, that’s the time we can really be matured spiritually. But that must not stop us to pursuit to grow and learn more and more. The circumstances, problems, persecutions and such happening to us will help us grow and depend on God. Only to Him we can cling on in every way. There is no other option. =)
davepine on July 8, 2009 at 6:01 am
Spiritual maturity is what we all must strive for every day by pressing in to touch Jesus. To know Him intimently as to be one with Him. My desire and passion must be above all else to be like Him by dying to self. Deep calleth to Deep and we must go deeper into Christ. I see to many shallow Christians but first I must examine myself and then find that I fall short of His Glory and that my comparison is not to others but to Him. I want to be as David said as a deer panteth for water so my soul pants for Him. Most do not want to leave the elementry teachings because we are comfortable of just getting by and are to busy to make it a commitment. I thank God that is Holy Spirit is always speaking to me to draw closer and He will come closer to me.I Love Him so much because He first loved me and He loved me unconditionaly I want more than anything to love Him the same regardless of the conditions around me or of the world we live in.As for me and my house we are going to serve the Lord with ALL MY HEART.