Our goals in life can be seen as notches on a stick. Hold our stick next to a toddler, and the highest notch is impossible to reach.
Then, as the child grows, each notch comes closer and closer, the ones down low becoming child’s play.
God’s notches are the same. As new Christians, the old-time church warriors seem to have reached impossible spiritual milestones. We can’t compare. Then, one day God stops us in front of his spiritual mirror and tells us to look at ourselves. The notches once out of our reach are now at our fingertips.
We live God’s standard by growing in him one spiritual truth at a time.
John 1:1 reminds us to turn to the source of our salvation for our daily nourishment. It’s in Jesus that we gain spiritual strength and build strong bones.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says no portion of the Word can be excluded from our growing experience. We mature in Christ when we dine on all of him.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
1 Timothy 5:8 tells us our maturity is more than spiritual. We must consider those around us and see to their care, or our Christian witness falls apart.
“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
God notches his standards so high on our stick that they seem impossible to reach. He knows something we don’t. When we mature in him, those same standards will be ones we can live out with no trouble at all.
As we become more like Christ, we reflect more and more of who he is to those who need him most.
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