The Year of Spiritual Maturity-"2014"

Every year the Lord gives me my focus for the upcoming new year. In 2013, the Lord gave me the following slogan:               Shift, Come into Alignment, Stretch and Go Forth!

I can say without any doubt, I have indeed experienced each element of that slogan in some way throughout this year. Today, I accept the summons of the Lord to "Spiritual Maturity". Maturity in a sense means to come into full development. In essence, the Lord calls me to spiritual development in 2014. 2 Timothy 3:17, "Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us." MSG  This process of maturity is in preparation for something prepared for us in a time to come.

What does this entail? How is this achieved? It will vary based on where you are in your personal walk with God. For me, He has already identified measurable objectives that I must master more effectively in 2014. For your benefit and my reminder, I will share a few of those objectives today:

1. Develop a risk-taker's attitude. My objective is to immediately embrace whatever God says without the most subtle sign of resistance. To resist even subtly is an insult to the soverignty of God. A risk-taker is consumed by the directive, message, and task and not the outcome. The task or directive is my responsibility, the outcome is God's. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

2. Pray with a greater level of trust. Trust must trump expectation. Where as I have embraced expecting more from God, I must embrace the discipline of trust so that when my expectation is not met the way I want, I can fully understand and embrace the fact that God can be trusted to make adjustments to the answers to my prayers. (Proverbs 3:5, Romans 8:28)

3. Embrace teachable moments during difficult circumstances. Often times the moment overwhelms us to the point that we miss the lesson God is trying to teach us through the situation. If God allows a situation to develop and thrive, then He has some teachable moment tucked away in the situation. We must look for it and embrace it. (Psalms 86:11)

more to come......