13 Comments to 'Time to Grow Up!'
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Time to Grow Up!
Posted By Guest Contributor
“Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6”
When my husband and I were raising three kids, now and then you’d hear “Grow up!” “Act Your Age!” At one particularly wonderful moment, one of us told the other, “Only one person in this house gets to act 17.”
I’ve heard, ‘Just come to Christ, believing as a small child.’ No questions, no fears, no hesitation. Complete and utter trust. In his book, “Your God is Too Small” J.B. Phillips said the verse, “we must become as little children” could be explained as “without all the sham, compromise, and cynicism of adulthood.” It’s not so much what we’re to come with, but rather what we’re to take off, before we approach Him. We’re to remove the trappings of adulthood we tend to acquire along the journey.
Phillips also said, “only the mature Christian (wo)man can begin to see a little of the “size” of his Father. When I grow up a bit, spiritually, I see how superior He is to me. How big He is, how little I am.
He is who He says He is. “I Am.” The Creator of the Universe, the One who hung the stars, shaped the planets, formed water and dry land. He formed me in my mother’s womb, and knows the number of my days. He’s the One I will spend eternity with. He died for undeserving me. When I recognize who He is, it puts little ‘ole me in perspective. It makes it a bit easier to get over myself.
I show that His existence matters by reading, believing His Word, and doing what it says. All of it, not just the parts I like. I also show it by how I spend my time and money. Our senior pastor tells us, ‘if you want to know what’s really important to a person, look at their calendar and their checkbook.’ Ouch.
Next, am I mature enough to recognize His position versus mine? Do I believe He moves in my life, rewarding me? Not because I deserve it. I don’t. I can’t do anything to deserve His love more. There’s also nothing I can do that will make Him give up on me. He loves me, exactly as I am, today. Sometimes acting a bit like a child, sometimes acting a bit more mature.
He “rewards me” by always being there. He cares about me. He cares if I can pay my bills, if I hurt, if I’m struggling. Sometimes He rewards me by allowing challenging circumstances. He has a plan that I’m generally unaware of. Sometimes I catch a small glimpse of it. He wants to be involved in the big and little of my life. The little problems, the big fears. God doesn’t have to become smaller. A God my size wouldn’t be of much use to me.
I don’t want to be the one acting like a 17 year old. I want to eat at the grown-up table of life.
DISCUSSION: Do you struggle with God being “big enough” to deal with your problems, or “small enough” to care about them? How do you work on growing up, spiritually?
Sep 27th, 2006
I guess I sometimes struggle with Him being so big and me being so small. I’m mean I know He loves me and all but really with wars and human trafficing and global warming, wouldn’t He just rather I work things out on my own and give Him some space. And then I have to remind myself that He does want everything to do with me offered up to Him and that He is so great HE CAN DO IT ALL. Boggles my mind.
Back in the day when I was at my worst emotionally, I had a friend that would tell me, Paulette just give that to the Lord. I would always think Why would he want it? Why would he care about the pain I was in?
On the contray, he does care. If he can know the number of hairs I have on my head , then why would he not care about the emotional pain I am in?
I find that If I am in the word of God every single day, and have an active prayer life then I am much stronger in my Spiritual walk. I am an avid reader, I have a great collection of books. I found that I would read all the time but wouldnt read the most important word, Gods word. So I set the books aside for a year to read through the Bible. I am in my 6 months and have found how much more I have grown in Christ Spiritually and gain my strength in that. We have to be in the word to be fed.
Thanks Bev this encouraged me today, it shows me I am on the right path!! Be Blessed.
My old pastor used to say this a lot to us too … “if you want to know what’s really important to a person, look at their calendar and their checkbook.” And, it’s true! I’ve experienced it in my own life, where my calendar was overbooked with “stuff” other than “God stuff” and my checkbook had a lot of checks written out to Target, WalMart, etc… and only one to my church. Painful? Yes. True? Yes. Does it help us re-prioritize? Yes!
Thanks for mentioning this in your post!
“A God my size wouldn’t be of much use to me,” smacked me right in the face. It reminded me how big He really is. It also reminded me that He’s as aware of my insignificant little problems as He is of the huge, overwhelming problems in our world. We should never feel abandoned. He’s there, watching over us, and hoping we’ve learned to trust Him and know He’s got us in His hands. Knowing it and always remembering it is what true faith is.
The hard part is figuring out the lessons He’s teaching us in tough times. That’s the thing I struggle with.
This post reminded me that if He’s not giving up, who am I to give up? You’re right. It’s time to grow up.
Wonderful words little sister. xoxoxo
First I have to say that as usual, you inspire me
I’m so thrilled that you were the contributor today 
Now, I’ve often struggled with this issue, for the longest time I kept thinking, well surely God doesn’t have time to deal with small little things in my life, why would He care if I have a cold, or if I am sad or upset, or if I have a small problem that I can’t seem to deal with.
I would tell myself “just give it all to the Lord, put it in His hands and let go”, but then just like Paulette said, I would think….WHY?!?!? I’m sure He has more important people with big and serious problems to deal with, He doesn’t have time for me.
How wrong I was. I then realized that if I walk hand in hand with Him every day, even through the “non important” things, such as housework, everything flows more smoothly. It’s a total change as to when I just hand Him the problems I feel are important.
He loves me for who I am, I’m His child. Just like with my own children, I worry about everything, are they eating, are they warm enough, are they sad, is there a problem I can help them with…..why would it be any different with our own Father???
Thanks for such a wonderful post Bev, it reminds me to keep including the Lord in every minute of my day
Huge hugs,
Sandra
“Sometimes He rewards me by allowing challenging circumstances. He has a plan that I’m generally unaware of. Sometimes I catch a small glimpse of it. He wants to be involved in the big and little of my life. The little problems, the big fears. God doesn’t have to become smaller.”
I love this part, especially how God doesn’t have to become smaller. I have to let Him become my all - my all for salvation, for protection, for acceptance, for every emotion or activity that I have in my life, for everything that I think is important and the things that I don’t.
And I need to recall the times when the impossible was before me, but my God was behind me, pushing me through it every step of the way.
Great post, Bev.
Thank you for sharing this. It was what this “big baby” needed to hear.
Shalom!
I think I do struggle with this. It’s hard to admit. It all sounds very unchristian-like and lacking of faith. *gasp!*
Great post! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
A statement I heard a long time ago that I’ve always loved is:
If God was small enough to understand, He wouldn’t be big enough to worship.
Your post reminded me of this again.
You asked, “How do you work on growing up, spiritually?” I think for me it’s daily applying what I’ve been studying in His word. If I’m watching for it, I’ll recognize that God always gives me a chance to apply what His word is teaching me. The key word is IF.
Thanks for the post, Bev.
I struggle with not wanting to bother God with my insignicant problems. I still do mind you - I have to! What would I do without him! But I still feel guilty - there are children suffering and dying, enduring horrific things, and I am whining that I am tired! So I try to do both - grow up and keep my problems in perspective and yet still bring them to the Lord because like Sandra said a parent cares about everything big and small.
A wonderful post - thatnks so much for joining us today!
I’m at the end of a very long day, spent at a retirement seminar. At this point, I’m thankful to say there will be no finances in heaven. That’s something to say Amen over. I used to say, God is big enough for my big stuff and small enough to deal with the little, but really, I as a parent am of no use if I cant be bigger than their problems. The same with him. I still remember going with our kids to Awanas and seeing all the little kids sing, “Our God is an Awesome God, so strong and so mighty, and they’d all flex their skinny little arms. That’s really a good picture of what He’s like, versus what we’re like. He’s awesome. I have pretty skinny arms, relatively speaking. Thank you all for your encouraging comments at the end of a very brain-draining day. xoxoxoBev
Great post, Mom! I loved the last sentence of the discussion question–a God who is big and small at the same time! xoxo
Hmmm. Lots to think about here. I’m glad that, like you say, God loves us no matter what.