Room to Grow

'Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.' (Luke 22:31-32 NIV)

This concept of the Christian life as a journey to be taken, a growth to be attained, is being lost to us through two widely separated modern errors.
. . .

The second error is found among us evangelicals. This error is the exact opposite of the liberal's, which assumes spiritual life to be present when it is not; this one assumes that life is not there when it is. Unless every Christian virtue is in the soul, it flatly denies that any virtue is there at all. It requires all babies to be born full grown, and all pilgrims to reach their destination the same moment they set out on their journey. Those who hold this error seem possessed by a desperate hope that if they can shatter all faith and shake every Christian loose from his confidence they can bring about a revival. As they see it, no one is where he should be and will never arrive there until he admits that he has been deceived about himself up to now and has only just this minute seen the true light.

Prayer
Awesome is Your patience with me in my walk with You. I trip and fall. You pick me up. You intercede for me. Thank You, Lord, thank You.

Thought
Consider Peter. Terrible failures in his life there were but mark the growth. At various points in his life we might have written him off. But Christ didn't. Let's give our brothers and sisters room to grow.

Used with permission.