Part Two: Five More Signs of Spiritual Maturity

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful- for He cannot deny Himself”. 2 Timothy 2:13

Paul David Tripp has this to say about our faithlessness: “Yes, it is true- God will remain faithful even when you’re not because His faithfulness rests on Who He is, not on what you’re doing.”

Immediately after finishing writing my blogs on spiritual maturity last week, I picked up a devotional by Paul David Tripp that “happened to be” about God’s faithfulness to help us walk out our Christian lives in a more faithful way. I don’t believe these reinforcements of a message sent from the Holy Spirit are coincidental. Tripp was answering this important question: “How do we develop into a more mature Christian?” Here are some excerpts from his January 13 devotional in his New Morning Mercies, a book I greatly value:

“Most human beings buy into a view of life characterized by the “life is on your shoulders,” “you make or break your life,” “pay your money and take your choice,” or “you have no one to look to or blame but yourself.” …But (God) welcomes you to a radically new way of living…not just about submitting to God’s moral code. No, it is about God covenantally commmiting Himself to be faithful to you forever, unleashing His wisdom, power, and grace for your eternal good…and He will not let you go.”

As we look at five more marks of spiritual maturity on a Christian’s life, let’s do so joyfully, knowing that He will be faithful to do the impossible in our lives: He alone can make us more like Him every year we know Him.

Five More Signs of Spiritual Maturity

1.    You hunger and thirst after righteousness. You desire to come before Him clothed in righteousness. You see that righteousness is His and you ask for it. You realize that to do that, you have to be able to see your own sin. The sins of a Christian are often hard to self-discern. The pride, condescension, and judgment we Christians have demonstrated over the last year must have grieved the Lord. I have been praying for the Lord to reveal every smudge of my sin and drop the scales from my eyes when I look at my heart. I am praying for a clean wineskin so the Holy Spirit can fill me up with the righteousness of Christ. I have also prayed that He will make me more sensitive to sneaky sins like pride and judgmentalism from the moment they crop up in my heart. I pray I feel immediate conviction and set new speed records for casting them to Him for His absolution.

2.    You see more to praise God for and have less of a critical eye. Your impulse is to give Him praise freely and all throughout the day as you see His goodness everywhere.

3.    You have an urgency for lost souls. You pray for the Lord to give you opportunities to share the Gospel. You cannot bear to see all the people you meet that may be left behind and not enter Heaven. You pray and ask God to use you in some way to share the Good News.

4.    You have a quiet spirit.  Nothing about you says “look at me” rather “look at Him.” We have an epidemic among Christians of virtue-signaling. We let people know the pious things we do, the ministry we are involved in, and we demarcate ourselves loudly by subtly bragging about what we don’t do.  We casually drop hints about our very long quiet times, our superior knowledge of Biblical literature and books, and our life untainted by television or anything worldly. All of that may be good, but unless you are led by the Lord to testify for some purpose, drawing attention to yourself is antithetical to Christ and all He was about.

5.    Your eyes are so on Him that you barely give credence to the circumstances in front of you. You are not blind; you see the circumstances with honesty, but your eyes immediately go up, high above the circumstances, to the all-powerful, omniscient, merciful Father who knows the end from the beginning and Who is above all things. You know that no matter how bad things are, in Him, all things hold together. You can lie down in peace. You do not doubt His ability to take you out of the fire or to stand beside you and protect you in it if He so chooses. Your confidence is totally in the Lord.

These are the areas where the Lord is working to grow and mature me, especially this week. Are there a couple that you might pray about today and ask the Lord to mature in you?

 NOTE: Part One of this blog on spiritual maturity was covered in the previous blog. If you have not read that blog, please scroll down to read that one for context for this week’s blog.