At some point in your life, I hope you had someone love you enough to tell you to grow up.  We are not meant to live like children into our later years, nor as Christians are we meant to remain as spiritual children.

1 Corinthians 13:11 – “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.“

You will encounter suffering.  You will encounter temptation.  These things are guaranteed in this world, which is stained by sin.  Resolve to glorify God in each day, so that when those things come, they are not a time to shrink back from your faith, but for the faith and God to be magnified.

James 1:2-4 – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

My exhortation today is short – the time has come to put away half-measures, self-deception, partial-allegiance, and lukewarm faith.  You have been redeemed by the blood of God in Jesus, His burial, death, and resurrection.  Grow up.  You are an adopted daughter or son of God, if indeed that is what you are.  Your thoughts, your actions, your resources are towards one end, in this life – what can be done to lift up the name of Jesus, push back darkness, proclaim life to the spiritually dead through the proclamation of the gospel, pursue justice for the oppressed, and serve the poor for the glory of God.  Life will not be easy as a Christian, but the joy of the LORD is great, and there is no better place to be moment to moment of each day than in the will of your Creator.