Jesus Only: Part OneSample

Week 4, Day 5 - Thursday

Spiritual Maturity - Full of Ourselves?

Have you ever been hungry for something you love when you’ve just finished Thanksgiving dinner? Nope, me neither. Hunger doesn’t happen when you’re full. Spiritual maturity is kind of like that. 

Jesus lives in us by the Holy Spirit. So why aren’t we automatically spiritually mature? The answer is fullness - being filled with God. Jesus has the complete fullness of God (Col. 1:19; 2:9), but most of us are full of ourselves. For Jesus to live in me, to pour Himself into me, to fill me, I must be emptied. Some call this dying to self; others call it surrender. Whatever you call it, becoming spiritually mature is a process, not a once and done. Following Jesus means I have access to His agenda for me, but it requires dying to all competing agendas, including my own ideas of how to change. And dying on the inside takes time. It is the process of willingly surrendering my agenda. It is me allowing my Head (Jesus) to be in control of His Body (me). 

What God uses to help us let go of filling our own emptiness is often uncomfortable, scary, and even painful. Sometimes it’s suffering that we don’t understand: like the death of someone close to us, loss of a job or a friend, conflict at home or work. Sometimes He exposes the reality that our comfortable spiritual routines don’t seem to work anymore.

We run from these things – we fear allowing them to get to us, to work in us. The hard things in life have the power to reveal what’s in our hearts, to show us what we really believe if we let them. Maturity is the process of letting these difficult "noticings" bring us up short and turn us to God in dependence. What awaits is a shift from hope in earth’s things to hope in Jesus. Col. 3:2-3 says it like this, ”Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.“ 

So, what does bring the deep life change we desperately want but can’t produce? It starts with welcoming a new level of awareness of what is going on in our souls. Transformation takes root in me when I’m ready to trade in my "feel-good" agenda for more, for whatever God wants to give me. As long as I’m full of what I want, I don’t have room to receive. 

Paul understood this. His letter to the Colossians was written from prison. He’d never even met them, but he loved the Colossians too much to live a comfortable, stable life. He had learned to be empty in order to be full. 

Reflection Questions

How aware are you of your emptiness? What in your life is filling you now?

When have you been aware of mistaking other hungers for soul hunger? 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many of us to detach from our normal routines, what we think we need. How has this been good for you? 

What would it mean for you to lose your life in order to gain the life Jesus has for you?