Mature

Are you a grown up believer in Jesus?

According to Hebrews 5:14, we only grow up when we spend time consistently in God's Word.

Do you read, study and meditate on God's Word regularly?

If not, it's time to begin.  Reading, studying and meditating on God's Word is the way we grow up.  If you do not do that and are just depending on someone else, for example, your pastor or preacher, to "preach" to you, then you are still infants.  If you don't, you will have a really hard time telling good from evil.  If you don't, you'll often be tossed around by people's opinions and be weaker, less likely to stand strong.

Let's let God bring us to maturity, day by day, by spending time in the Word.  If you don't have a pattern, if you don't know where to begin, I suggest you begin with the New Testament, for example, with the Gospel of John.  Or, if you wish to join in with me and the group I pray with, you can read the "Moravian Daily Texts."  (We usually focus on the New Testament verses.)

PRAY and ask God to speak to you. READ a verse, a sentence, a paragraph, or even a chapter... read until something stands out.  Something that catches your attention.  PAUSE.  Ask God to teach you about that part.  Re-read the verse or word or sentence that caught your attention.  Ask QUESTIONS.  Write (or just consider) those questions and SEEK to understand by using a "STUDY BIBLE" with notes and cross-references.  ASK God "Is there something in this verse you want to teach me?"  WRITE (I tweet or blog) any ways that you think that God may be asking you to apply that verse.  Then PRAY again, asking God to help you remember what you have learned.  Then stop and begin again the next day.

I usually do my scripture reading first thing in the morning.  I read alone and then, often, join with others who are reading the same passages for a 15 minute daily prayer time. I have found this to be a very helpful thing.  (Reading consistently in this way has been a new thing in the last year.)  If you'd like me to join you in a prayer time, just ask!  Or ask a friend or family member to do this with you.  I find that doing this in harmony with others keeps me going day by day.

Here's the Bible passage that caused me to consider all of this when I woke at 3:30 this morning.  Now I'll have a bite to eat and perhaps slip back to bed for a half hour before I hit the road.

Hebrews 5:11-14 "It is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

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