"Get Yourself Dressed!": Growing More Mature as a Believer

This morning, I was getting Moses into his little shirt (he turned 1 recently) and I noticed that he was actively striving to help put his arms in... a new development! It's so fun, isn't it?, the way our children start out so helpless and over time, take on more and more responsibility for themselves. It'll be awhile, though, before I have to remind him, when he comes to the living room in his big-boy-underwear, "go get yourself dressed!"

And there are parallels of this for us, in the Christian life. Last week, I had the opportunity to head outside our four walls for a quiet hour... an opportunity to practice the discipline of solitude and prayer. After I did, I realized how infrequently I've set aside time to really be silent before the Lord, just listening, still, knowing that He is God.

If I'm going to grow spiritually, if I'm going to mature, I've got to start owning my own actions, and reach out for what I need. "Dressing myself", so to speak, like Moses is beginning to try to do.

I'm learning more about going deeper in my spiritual walk, and I know part of it is just me exercising the spiritual disciplines that have nurtured and sustained the faith of Christians for centuries.We evangelicals do a fair job carrying out the outward things... giving charitably, gathering as a community of Saints to worship together each Sunday, studying our Bibles, and such. We do not typically do so well at the inward disciplines-- prayer, solitude, fasting, meditating on memorized Scripture, and the like. I want to grow in this area, and I'm considering how to take those steps.

But I'm writing now as a way of setting up a stone of remembrance, like the children of Israel often did, that God has brought me thus far. Like the priests, I feel like I'm walking down to the river. Like God is drawing me into a new place in my relationship with Him. I really don't know how God will teach me to have God-confidence, and not revert back to that self-confidence I've come to rely on these many decades... but I trust that He will show me.

Maybe He's asking something similar of you? I don't know... but this has all come about in my heart since starting to write again, and so if you want to go deeper too, I'd love to hear from you and walk with you. No pressure, but if you're interested, please leave a comment & let's discuss these things more.

outdoor: Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

prayer: Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net