DEVOTION - Day 11

Ephesians 4:14 (New International Version)

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

The fourth chapter in the book of Ephesians is so full of wisdom that I couldn’t possibly cover it all in one day’s devotion blog. So, I once again challenge you to take a look at this chapter in its entirety. I believe it has something or everyone if you will take the time to digest what it is trying to tell you.

But, my goal today is to examine the concepts presented in verse 14. Here we see Paul encouraging the people of the church of Ephesus with the hope that one day they will “no longer be infants.” Having 2 infants in my household, this Scripture hits close to home for me. The diapers, teething, lack of ability to get themselves dressed, and so on. It is really a time in their lives where they rely 100%, almost, on others to take care of them and give them the basic necessities of life.

I cannot wait for them to mature to a point in their own life where they do not constantly require so much of my attention and energy in order to function. It is much the same for all of us when we first come to a knowledge of Christ. Think about it for a minute. What was it like when you first accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Did immediate change happen for you? Was your life completely different the next day when you woke up?

The answer I would guess is that your life is still a work in process. In other words, none of us at day 1 or day 1,000 is the kind of mature Christian that we aspire to be. Our Christian development, in other words, takes time and a maturing of our walk with God. So, given all of this, what is this Scripture trying to tell us?

Well, I believe we see here not only the hope that we will one day mature in our walk, but that it will become easier to not be swayed by all of the other competing priorities and opinions that we are faced with on a daily basis. When we are infants in our faith, we require others to give us direction and provide for our basic needs. And when we separate ourselves from the community of Christian fathers and mothers (the church), we leave ourselves open to being “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

For me, when I was first saved, I went to a church that didn’t focus too often on Christian development. In fact I feel that anyone who took that all important step of inviting Jesus into their heart to be their Savior and Lord, was almost left hanging with little or no direction on where to go from there. So, that created in my life a shallow Christianity that didn’t take time to read His Word and devote myself to learning more about this person that I just said I wanted to follow. Also, I didn’t place a value on going to church because I didn’t understand this principle, so I just stopped going when I got to college and away from my parents “making” me go.

How old are you in your Christian walk? Are you 1 or 5 or maybe even 10? Think about where that age matches with a child. If you were saved 5 years ago, you have now made it through your ‘formative’ years and you are ready to go to kindergarten. Kindergarten. You are not ready to graduate into adulthood…yet. But, with some focus on God’s principles and Spiritual disciplines such as following this blog and doing devotions/spending time with God daily, you can continue your journey towards maturity.

So, today ask God to help you to accept your Spiritual age. Ask that He would give you the strength to resist the temptation to be “older” than you actually are and that you would take the time to learn about Him more each day. Pray that in your faithfulness to these things that He would be faithful to His word to give you the maturity to resist all the distractions of life that would take you away from His best for your life.