Continue to grow in your faith

A few weeks ago I came across the story a 20-year woman who tragically lost her life to an rare disorder that affects a handful of people globally. So mysterious is this disorder that it has been given the name "syndrome X" for unknown. Medical researchers and doctors can only observe what is happening without being able to give an explanation.

Syndrome X stops the growth of those who are affected. The young woman in the article died at the age of 20 but her physical, emotional and mental growth halted around the age of a 5-year-old.

In no way do I want to trivialize or diminish the death of this woman and the trauma that her family is enduring. She was created in the image of God and therefore had value every day of her life. Every parent mourns with this family in their loss and the difficulty they went through.

She does however serve as a reminder to us all -- not just the brevity and preciousness of life but how important it is for each and every one of us to continue to grow. That you and I may reach a chronological age but maturity, particularly spiritual maturity, is always a work in progress.

The Bible in Hebrews 6 reminds all that if they are believers, if they have surrendered themselves to God receiving His free gift, then they have a responsibility to build upon that gift, moving from spiritually immature to spiritually mature men and women.

Spiritual maturity is a lifelong process. The greatest reason for becoming spiritually mature is the greater dangers if we don't. The people addressed in the Hebrew letter could not feel the complete impact of their faith because they were in the dangerous position of being spiritually immature. Their lives were being tossed back and forth like a bottle in the middle of the ocean -- subject to every power, every breeze and every current that it crossed.

Our thinking settles in our hearts and emerges in our hands. God desires for each of us to continually grow in our understanding of who He is in order to endure with certainty the Bible. The main way that He grows and transforms us is through engaging the Bible. Spiritual maturity comes through His transformation of us causing the life of faith to be just that -- life.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at robhurtgen.wordpress.com.