Faith Food Devotional: Monday 5th May, 2013

Inching Closer To Maturity

Cedar of Lebanon

“And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown”. (Mark 4: 8 AMP)

According to Samuel Ullman “Maturity is the ability to think, speak and act your feelings within the bounds of dignity. The measure of your maturity is how spiritual you become during the midst of your frustrations”. How mature are you? What is your reaction when you are stepped on or mistreated?

To grow into maturity of godliness in mind and character: to reach the proper height of virtue and integrity is a process. It may be slow for some, and faster for others. But as Robert Cushing said, “The fact is that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can”. We must not be afraid to grow slowly or get discouraged if we sometimes fall. We must rise and get on with life, planting ourselves firmly on the Lord.

Has the Word brought you the power of growth and increase? Have you grown like a palm tree: long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful; or like a cedar in Lebanon: majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible? “The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible].Psalm 92: 12

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"How clumsy are people in doing that in which they have had little practice. Frequency will familiarize you with the work, and make it easier and more delightful. The hill which made you pant and puff the first time you climbed it, you may easily run up when you become accustomed to it." Richard Baxter

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