Becoming a mature Christian: "not over time but through training to know different between good and evil"
Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
I can’t help but read this text this morning and say “bull’s eye” to the most of the Christians in the USA today. There is the lie that infects many believers today that being a Christian is like being a human and with every year we grow because of time and this text speaks against this truth. The reality is we can remain infants in the faith for all of our lives and this has happened and may be one of the main reasons that the mainline church today in the USA is declining. Folks come in week after week and just take up space on a pew and never seek to train themselves to distinguish between good and evil. The scary thing is that if we are not training ourselves to distinguish between what is good and evil we will end up choosing evil and thinking it is good. That’s what infants do, right? They don’t know the pretty red stove is hot and will burn them; they think it is good because of its pretty red glare and then they come to find out that the red glare is the evil they need to stay away from. Sadly, unlike human infants; Christians infants don’t grow over time and if Christian infants don’t train themselves they could spend the rest of their lives touching the “pretty red glare” over and over again becoming a liability to the faith instead of an asset.
Lord, I come to you today confessing that I get caught up in the “pretty red glare” and lose focus upon where you want me to give my attention. Lord, I cannot grow without you and I need your grace to give me the strength to grow and become a man of faith. Give me the grace to distinguish between good and evil; give me confidence in this decision; help me not to get in the lie of trying to please people but to stay focused upon the truth of learning to distinguish between good and evil. Amen!
Maturity comes from training self to distinguish between good and evil
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