Young Adults' Group

Time To Grow

by Pastor Mark
January 07, 2015

The challenge to mature our faith

As I was reflecting over what Pastor Charles taught us at the YPG-YAG combined meeting last Saturday, I was encouraged by his challenge to mature our faith. Our faith is meant to grow and mature. We are meant to grow from strength to strength.

No time to waste anymore

Yet there is the danger that we may still remain as babes in Christ. While it is time for us to rise up and teach, in reality, we still do not have good foundations of the knowledge of the Word of God, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Hebrews 5:12) We continue to only partake of spiritual milk and not meat.

If this is true, then we would have wasted time. According to the author’s expectation, it was time for the people that he was addressing to be teachers, but they were far from ready. They could have matured their faith had they been diligent in laying their foundations. But they did not and had wasted much time in the process. We really should not be wasting any more time. Let’s be challenge do something about our faith.

Time to grow towards maturity

1. Time to grow

It is time for us to start growing our faith. We really shouldn’t allow another year to go by and not grow our faith. If we need to go back to the basics in order to build a strong foundation, let us seek to do so. Let us be challenged to know the elementary principles of Christ. (Hebrews 6:1) Let us seek to be no longer babes in Christ but to grow spiritually.

2. Time to grow more

For others, maybe we have built a good foundation for ourselves but have become stagnant in our growth. If we did not grow in 2014 as we should have, let’s be challenged to grow more in 2015. We can continue to grow when we are nourished by the Word of God. (1 Timothy 4:6) Whether as a pastor or as brethren, we all need to be spiritually fed with solid food in order to grow. Let’s be challenged to grow more significantly.

3. Time to grow fully

Lastly, can we speak of having a mature faith? The answer is probably “No”. For the rest of us, we want to work towards maturity. The writer wrote “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14) We want to partake of spiritual meat…things that are hard to understand. We want grow our faith through thinking over deeper knowledge of Christ. When we grow to full maturity, we would be able to have good spiritual reasoning and to discern between good and evil. Let’s be challenged to work towards having a mature faith.

Making 2015 truly a year of growth

As a YAG, my hope and prayer is that many of us will see our faith maturing in 2015. Let us grow deeper in the Lord’s Word and develop our faith to face the context of life’s challenges and to serve with greater depth and understanding. Let us use our time well and make 2015 a year of significant growth and maturing.

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