Growing in Faith HEBREWS 5:12-14

Our Father in heaven desires that we grow spiritually from infancy to maturity. He puts us in a school of faith, so to speak, teaching us to follow Him. Yesterday, we talked about the discipline of listening to God. Today, let’s look at four more practices necessary for living a life in Christ.

First, the Lord desires that we obey Him. Some of His teachings are easy to follow, while others are difficult. Choosing our own way might feel good at first, but the end result is always regret. On the other hand, every act of obedience builds faith.

Second, the Lord teaches us to depend upon Him. In fact, He sometimes calls us to action in areas that seem humanly impossible. For instance, forgiving an atrocious act feels beyond our ability. But when we cannot achieve what He requires, we rely upon His strength to enable us.

Third, our heavenly Father wants us to wait upon Him. We want everything to happen according to our preferences and timetable, but manipulating circumstances only makes a mess. God’s way is best, and He desires for us to trust and be patient.

Fourth, Scripture teaches us to confess failures, repent, and learn from them. God doesn’t expect perfection, but He does want to see a healthy response to shortcomings.

The heavenly Father wants His children to have abundant, meaningful lives. For this reason, He sent His Holy Spirit to indwell, equip, and empower believers so they can reach their God-given potential. We can choose to cooperate with this plan or to live independently of His best.

Lessons From the Field

I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail.

Haggai 2:17

How destructive is the hail to the standing crops, beating out the precious grain upon the ground! How grateful we should be when the corn is spared so terrible a ruin! Let us offer to the Lord thanksgiving. Even more to be dreaded are those mysterious destroyers—fungus, rust, and mildew. They turn the ear into a mass of soot or render it putrid or dry up the grain, and all in a manner so beyond all human control that the farmer is compelled to cry, “This is the finger of God.” Innumerable, minute fungi cause the mischief, and if it weren’t for the goodness of God, the rider on the black horse would soon scatter famine over the land. Infinite mercy spares the food of men, but in view of the active agents that are ready to destroy the harvest, wisdom teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The curse is everywhere, and we are in constant need of the blessing. When blight and mildew come, they are chastisements from heaven, and men must learn to deal with them accordingly.

Spiritually, mildew is not an uncommon evil. When our work is most promising, this blight appears. We hoped for many conversions, and instead we find a general apathy, an abounding worldliness, or a cruel hardness of heart! There may be no blatant sin in those for whom we are working, but there is a deficiency of sincerity and decision that is sadly disappointing. We learn from this to depend upon the Lord and the necessity of prayer so that no blight will fall upon our work. Spiritual pride or laziness will soon bring upon us the dreadful evil, and only the Lord of the harvest can remove it. Mildew may even attack our own hearts and shrivel our prayers and dampen our zeal. May it please the great Gardener to avert so serious a calamity. Shine, blessed Sun of Righteousness, and drive the diseases away