ICS Daily Devotions
Signs of Spiritual Maturity
1 Cor 3:1-4: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to
babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive
it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and
divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of
Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?Gal 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.
God lives in His own space and time that does not always match our own time. Based on His eternity, time is not an issue for God. The Lord will answer our prayers whenever He wants. He knows better the times and when the solution to our problem is imminent. We may pray for important things in our lives and may think about several possible rational solutions to the problem. But God quite often solves it uniquely in another way. God cannot be limited into our thinking. Neither is he a machine for our prayer answers. He will answer in His way and time to assure us that He is in control and not us.
We can be assured of only two things: (1) our prayer matters and makes a difference and (2) God’s answer never comes too late.
As a matter of fact, the aspect of time should not be an issue for us either. If we live closely in God, we experience an ultimate happiness just based on our mutual relationship. The other things become subsidiary from the time perspective. Generally speaking, it does not matter if the answer comes tomorrow or in five years. Our focus should be different. The Amplified Bible expands the word “patience” from the list of spiritual fruit in Gal 5:22 as “not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting.” If we wait while living close to God, we will not even feel that patience is an issue. It is the children who want things here and now. If you do not give them something immediately, they start crying, or at least, you see a terrible disappointment on their faces. Let us not be like children in the spirit! Paul was disappointed with the church in Corinth that experienced many strives and divisions.
The spiritual fruit of the Holy Spirit is directly proportionate to spiritual maturity. Children or babes are very self-centered and selfish in the flesh. The Christians can also behave like children if they do not grow spiritually. They can also be very self-centered instead of Christ-centered. They cause divisions among themselves saying “I am of Paul,” I am of Apollos”. But Paul admonishes us to become “spiritual people,” which means to attain maturity as spiritual adults.
John 15:8: By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Jesus compares the discipleship to spiritual fruit. We are affected by the world that we live in. It is a microwave, cyber-fast information culture. Everything changes very quickly. Just a couple of hundred years ago, the culture was very slow-paced. The culture into which a person was born lasted till he or she died. There was a certain stability. Our culture, on the other hand, is very unstable, confusing, and ever-changing. Even younger people today already experienced at least two technical revolutions such as the rise of internet and cell phones that changed the culture entirely. New and new songs are produced and the top charts change every week. We are subject to stress every day because it may seem that if we skip reading the news one day, we will miss the whole world.
Our generation also gets easily disappointed, angry, quickly discouraged, and is subject to depression. And our Christian expectations go often along the same lines: if we believe for something, we should receive it. And when? Now or tomorrow! If it takes too long, we start to question God, bounce in our faith, and feel spiritually disappointed. But it is worth to commit things into God’s hands and not be worried so much. God knows all that we need and is ready to provide it for us! But let us
wait for His timing. It is a sign of true stability and spiritual maturity.
Series: The Power of Patience
