Spiritual Parents and Children
The Lord designed His followers to be a family. Once we come to know Christ, we are a baby Christians. Like all children we should grow up in the Lord and become mature believers. There are phases in that growth, but the end result of spiritual growth is that we should have spiritual children ourselves. Just like seeing a baby born is a miracle and a great joy for the parents, so is having a spiritual son or daughter. Next to being saved, it is our greatest joy and satisfaction. Then, we are to help raise the new spiritual child to become mature, too. That is why Paul was reminding the believers in Corinth that he was their spiritual father, and that they should be intimating him, like our children imitate us. (I Corinthians 4:15,16) I pray that we all grasp this truth and apply it in our own lives, because having spiritual children is the way for the world to come to Christ and have eternal life.
How many spiritual children do you have? When I read statistics, I am told that 95% of believers never lead another person to the Lord; they never have even one spiritual child. That is so sad. It means that those people never experience God's family in the way He designed it. It also is a sign of spiritual immaturity. If we do not grow enough to lead others to the Lord, or if we do not have the desire to do that, we are lacking in our spiritual development. Immature Christians, not only fail to lead others to Christ, but they have all sorts of problems in life, because they have not grown to the place to be able to handle them. That is why I would urge all of us to be intentional about growing in the Lord and having spiritual sons and daughters. It is one of the greatest aspects of living the abundant Christian life.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Corinthians 6-9.
How many spiritual children do you have? When I read statistics, I am told that 95% of believers never lead another person to the Lord; they never have even one spiritual child. That is so sad. It means that those people never experience God's family in the way He designed it. It also is a sign of spiritual immaturity. If we do not grow enough to lead others to the Lord, or if we do not have the desire to do that, we are lacking in our spiritual development. Immature Christians, not only fail to lead others to Christ, but they have all sorts of problems in life, because they have not grown to the place to be able to handle them. That is why I would urge all of us to be intentional about growing in the Lord and having spiritual sons and daughters. It is one of the greatest aspects of living the abundant Christian life.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Corinthians 6-9.