Flowers are beautiful! I’m amazed at the patience of some gardeners. They meticulously plan and plant beautifully arranged flower beds. I know when I look at a
garden whether or not its gardener had a plan and whether or not that plan was followed. For a garden to grow to a thing of beauty, certain things must be done in the right order and at the right time. You’ll get nowhere if you water the soil before you plant the seeds or if you try to plant the seed before the frost goes out of the ground.
To grow spiritual maturity requires having and sticking to a well-ordered plan, too. First, we need to be saved. Until we plant Jesus’ Spirit in our hearts, nothing spiritual can grow in us.
Next, we need to nurture that seed of salvation. We need to feed it by reading, studying, and memorizing scripture. We need to water it by seeking God’s way of doing things and God’s plan for our lives. We need to cultivate it through obedience to God and giving up what we have and want and absorbing all God has and wants to give us.
Spiritual growth isn’t a one-time event. Instead it is a continuing recurring choice/process. We must daily choose to feed, water, cultivate, and nurture the spiritual flower planted in our hearts at salvation “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). As we do, we will begin to blossom and bloom beautifully for the Lord.
Please, pray with me – Heavenly Father, help me to continually nurture my faith life so I will become the mature Christ-follower that You want me to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Related Scripture:
Ephesians 4:1-13 – “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.’ (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
James 1:4 – “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”