Ephesians 4:11 – 16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

There’s a lot to unpack in these verses but we are just going to look at “growing up”!  According to these verses God is putting everything in your path to help you grow, it is up to you to take advantage of those opportunities.  We are fortunate here in the U.S. to have free access to the scriptures, we do not have any difficulties finding a Bible to read, we are also fortunate that around the world if there is internet there is The Word of God, you can easily access it in any language at www.biblegateway.com so let’s face it, we are without excuse.  A lot of our wilderness seasons are there to help us draw closer to Him and to help us grow in an area we are struggling in.  Ask God what you can learn in the season of life you are in whether it’s a good season or terrible storm.

We all have areas that we need to grow up in and it benefits the body of Christ if we all do our parts and work on it.  There is no excuse for saying, “well, that’s just the way that I am”, if you need to grow up and you know you are doing something wrong ~ stop it!  Ask God to give you all that you need to overcome whatever you struggle with and He will give it to you!  God wants to help you grow and be all you can be.

One area that a lot of people struggle with is getting offended easily.  Why?  It serves no purpose to wear your feelings on your sleeve and allow every little thing that is said and done offend you.  That can be a tough habit to break, believe me but you can do it by making the conscious effort to do it.  Don’t allow yourself to think every time you see someone whispering that they are talking about you, that is simply not true.  Don’t assume that everyone is talking about you all the time and you know what, if they are, they are the ones with the issues.  Don’t think that because your friend went to lunch with another friend that they don’t like you, you never know all of the circumstances.  Hold on to who you are in Christ and stop living for what everyone else may think or do.  God created you for so much more than that, He wants you to focus on being all you can be and satan is trying to distract you by helping you get offended at every turn.

One of the toughest things I struggle with right now personally is getting together with other women to study the word of God.  Satan fights me on that on every level even with the fact that I spend a lot of time already studying so it is easy to not make it a priority.  We all need the fellowship of other people, that is how we build each other up in Him.  This is also why we need to be in a good church.

Ask God today what areas need attention in your life.  For me, I know there are areas I need to be more disciplined in and I need to take better care of myself physically by getting more exercise. What is it that you need to focus more on to become more like Him?  Being all we can be for Him includes focusing on growing up in Him, you can’t be your best if you are still a toddler Christian when you should be acting like an adult Christian.  Seek Him in all you do and watch as He grows you into all He created you to be!

Quote: “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”  Will Rogers