We were created to GROW together
Has any ever told you to just “grow up?”
I used to say that to my kids when they were acting or behaving in a way that was inappropriate for their age. I would say something like… It’s time to grow up & act like a 5 year old, or 7 year old, or whatever. Now, they’re growing up to fast. So we’ve decided to repeat birthdays & let them stay the same age two years in a row in an effort to slow down the growth process!
If anyone has ever told you to just “grow up,” what they probably meant was that you were acting like a child in the moment & they were calling you out! And if you’ve ever been the recipient of those words, you know how harsh they sound!
Over the past few days I’ve noticed a lot of people posting side by side pictures of their kids first day & last day of school. You can really see how much your kids have grown over the course of a year when you put these two pictures side by side.
And I wonder if we were somehow able to catch a picture of your spiritual growth & where you were in that growth process a year ago, would we see growth? Would we see real, tangible, spiritual growth in your life?
We’ve talked about this before. You need Time, Roots, Air & Light to GROW.
And for the most part, these things happen when you are alone with God. Solitude is an extremely important part of the Christian walk. There’s no way around it. If you don’t spend time with Jesus you simply will never come to know him & you will simply never grow & mature in your faith.
But this is the point at which we differ from plants. I can take a seed, plant it in rich soil, water it, put it in the light & give it plenty of time to grow & most of the time, it will grow. It can grow & become something beautiful all by itself. But you simply cannot.
You were never created to GROW alone.
Because you were created to GROW TOGETHER.
God has called us to this life of growing together.
Listen to what Paul said to the believers in Ephesus:
“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Ephesians 4.15
When we speak the truth in love to each other — we GROW in Christ. Now this is critical, so I don’t want you to miss it. If we don’t speak the truth to each other in love, then we WON’T GROW.
The absence of speaking truth = the absence of growth.
Why?
Because growing in Christ is NOT something we can do alone! Following Jesus isn’t a me centered experience. Paul is calling US to GROW TOGETHER, not for you to try to grow alone.
When we speak up, we grow up in love. But if you don’t participate in the work of God in my life & speak truth into my life, I’ll never grow into the person God is desiring me to be. It’s no different than if you see me hungry & you refuse to give me food. Some of you are spiritually starving today because you don’t have a spiritual community speaking truth into your life.
When is the last time you asked someone you love to tell you areas in your life where you could be more like Christ?
Have you ever seen a bonsai tree?
You probably know that shaping these trees is a bit of an art form. But the only way that a bonsai tree can achieve beauty is because someone took the time to come alongside it & use these tools to trim, prune & train this tree to become the beautiful plant that it is today.
So often, you & I are so unwilling to let anyone have permission to speak any truth into our lives, so we are never fully transformed or called UP into who God wants us to be.
Let me ask it this way… Who are you speaking into right now? Who are you loving & pruning & teaching & training & calling UP into the life God has for them?
And… Who is speaking into you? Who are you allowing to speak truth to you, prune you, call you UP, teach you & train you?
As the body of Christ, we are called to speak into others & to allow others to speak into us.
There’s a sense in which YOU can’t transform YOU. And there’s a sense in which CHRIST can’t transform YOU. Because God designed you in such a way that you need the people of God to participate in your transformation for you to become who HE wants you to BE!
Transformation requires Confrontation.
We need people in our life so that we can GROW & be fully MATURE in Christ. We need each other. Because we were created to GROW TOGETHER.
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I serve as the Co-Senior Minister at First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land, TX. I enjoy sports, running, fishing & life with the family. I’ve been in ministry since 1999. My wife Alisha & I have three amazing children, Will, Ella Grace & Emma Love. Thank you for stopping by my website!
