Spiritual Maturity

Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

According to the above opening scripture, we have to ask God in order to receive. The necessity of this asking is further confirmed by what Jesus has said in Luke 11:5-13.

However, some Christians say there is no need to keep on asking God for what we want from God as God knows that what we want and when we want them even before we ask Him. To justify this saying, sometimes they quote the below scripture.

Matthew 6:8
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

If we look carefully at the life of these Christians, we can see they have not received most of the things they themselves have asked from God. This unpleasant experience has made them talk in this manner before other Christians in order to modify the truth of the Word of God in attempt to match it with their experience.

Why do we not receive what we ask? Why have the Word of God not become true to our life in reality?

Let's look at a small example in order to understand why we have not received most of the things that we have asked from God.

A father saves Rs. One Million in a bank for his son when the son is still small. The father now expects the child to grow in knowledge and wisdom to use this money prudently for his own betterment when the child reaches maturity.

Until the child reaches maturity, he is not legally allowed to withdraw a single cent even though the money belongs to him. After the child reaches maturity, he is legally entitled to the money his father has deposited in the bank under his name.

After he reaches maturity, now he becomes legally entitled to withdraw money from the bank, but still he has to go up to the bank and produce himself to claim his money by showing his legal rights to the money. Not only once, every time he makes subsequent withdrawals, he has to fill up a withdrawal form with the amount he needs and produce it to the bank along with his identity card, which shows his legal authority.

Showing the identity card is necessary for every single withdrawal for the Bank to establish his current identity. Losing identity card would prevent him from making further  withdrawals.

Dear friends, our treasure in Christ is similar to the money the above father has deposited in the bank on behalf of his son. Our Heavenly Father has deposited treasure in Christ on behalf of us, right on the day we, as spiritual babes, accepted Christ as our personal saviour in order that we withdraw them when we become spiritually matured.

However, even though we are the heirs of these treasures, we are not legally allowed to enjoy them until we become spiritually matured.

God the Father expects every one of us to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ day by day and reach our spiritual maturity. Until we reach our spiritual maturity, we are not allowed to enjoy these blessings hidden in Christ as we are not worthy of them.

Like the above father looks after his son with his daily needs, until he reaches maturity to enjoy the greater blessing of the money deposited in the bank, our Heavenly Father provides our daily needs to keep us going on our journey towards spiritual maturity. But it is our responsibility to reach the maturity and become legally qualified for the greater treasures in Christ.

Today, many of us have not understood this journey towards the spiritual maturity. All of us have a journey to make and God expects none of us to continue every day as spiritual babes. We all start our journey as babes, with the spiritual milk, but we have to grow day by day to eat solid food. When we are fit enough to eat solid food, we show our spiritual maturity to God the Father.

1 Peter 2:2
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

We have to grow in reading the Bible. We have to grow in prayer life. We have to grow in fasting. We have to grow in our spiritual gifts. We have to grow in sharing the Word of God with others, especially with those who are not saved (Gospel).

Yes...we have to grow in every respect as the Holy Spirit guides us.

Even after we are grown spiritually, still we have to submit our requests to the Father through Christ just like the matured child makes a claim for every withdrawal of his money in the bank. Yes, now the blessings are ours, but still making the request is the laid down procedure to receive what we need for the moment.

Whenever we submit our request, our current state of spiritual life is important as the matured child needs the identity for every withdrawal. This shows preserving our good deeds in Christ daily without allowing the devil to steal them.

Finally, we can come to the conclusion that many do not receive what they ask from God as the Scripture has promised, just because they are not spiritually qualified to touch the big things they are asking for. As those who are making the journey towards the spiritual maturity, we need not listen to these people when they modify the Word of God to match their unpleasant, defeated experience.