Growing Pains.

"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity..." (Hebrews 6:1)

Ever considered that maybe 'going on to maturity' requires growth and change? And that that growth and change may result in some kind of discomfort or effort?
Lately I've found that maturing in Christ is alot like growing up in the natural. An active, growing child is likely to experience growing pains - all their muscles and joints are telling them that their body is going through a change.
You will find that an active Christian will experience something similar. Not in their physical bodies but in their character. I say 'active' because it is easy for a Christian to hear the word of God but not act on it. The first step to maturity is putting your faith into action by applying it to your every day life. When we start applying the word of God to our lives we will experience change. We may go through seasons where these changes are more obvious than others and it is undenyable that these changes will be accompanied by the odd 'growing pain'.
I like to define growing pains as the lead up to the result. Sometimes the lead up can seem like it's lasting forever and it would seem easier to give up but Romans 5:3&4 tells us that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. However, the reality of it is, is that suffering produces moans and grumbles and moans and grumbles produce bad character and bad character produces hopelessness. But in Romans 5, Paul isn't talking about the common experience. He's coming from the view point of being justified by faith and it is by faith that we can persevere. If we are to become mature sons, we must persevere. This morning, Nick Matheson preached about a faith that perseveres and he was spot on when he said "Perseverance is the difference between children and mature sons." The only thing that will stop us from reaching maturity is giving up. And it really is as simple as that... never give up.

So, "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1)