HOW CAN YOU GROW UP IN CHRIST?

You have already seen some of the wonderful things God did for you when you became a Christian. These glorious truths concerning what has taken place within your heart are just as real as if you could see and feel them. But you must not forget that you have begun to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) You must reckon these things to be so (as indeed they are) and begin to live accordingly, regardless of how you may feel from day to day.

You have made the greatest decision of your life—one from which you cannot afford to turn back. Jesus said: “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62.) You have come into a matchless inheritance and cannot afford to look back to the “flesh pots of Egypt” which you have left behind.  Neither can you afford to sit down where you are with a feeling of false security. After years of growth in Christ and service for Him, Paul said: Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13)

Your desire now should be centered on growing up in Christ (Eph. 4:13). The new life which has been implanted in your heart is sure to grow and develop if the necessary conditions for growth are maintained. You cannot force even a plant to grow, but if you put it in the proper soil, remove the thorns and thistles that will choke it, and properly cultivate it, it will grow of itself. The most important thing in your growth then is to abide in Christ. That is the soil in which you now are planted. If you stay rooted in Him through the exercise of faith, get proper nourishment through the word of God and prayer, and take away whatever will hinder, the new life will grow and increase of itself. The growth will be gradual— “first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear” but with the conditions fulfilled it is sure to come.