How old are you, really?  I’ve known young people with wisdom beyond their years, and some elderly people who behave like children.  With each year of life we should gain wisdom.  Age is no guarantee of maturity.  Age does imply wisdom that comes from experience, and that should eventually form maturity in us. The dictionary defines maturity as full development; a perfected condition. In the language of finance, it’s a state of being due.

I found this verse written in my notes from 1993, Deuteronomy 6:3 “Be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the lord, the God of your Fathers promised you.”

In these notes I wrote about how thankful I was for the place God had brought me to and yet I so badly wanted more. “With God, there is always more.”  I think even in 1993 I felt an urgency about all God was promising me as His daughter.  I didn’t want to miss out on what I was supposed to do.

It’s one thing to do what you know to do, but maturity brings more knowledge. Maturity speaks of deeper understanding, and that naturally brings change.

The Bible says that love and obedience are connected. John 14 is the piece of scripture where Jesus tells his disciples, “if you love me, you will obey me.” He teaches us that though our obedience is never perfect, it is an essential part of our faith that springs from our love for Him.

Through all of our efforts to grow up and mature in Christ, I’m reminded of Samuel as he was talking to King Saul.  He said, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, (the translation of that to me, is good works, acts of kindness, giving to the poor) as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”  He said, “To obey, (to seek to satisfy the needs of people’s souls, in salvation, healing, bringing change), is better.”

The message version puts it like this: “Do you think all God wants are sacrifices- empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to Him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.”

We are discovering, it’s not about perfecting the art of looking like a Christian, but about proclaiming God’s greatness in all your life.

Is it possible that as we mature, we can begin to come into a more complete understanding of what obedience and love mean? To hear His heart, and not just His words?  As we love him more, we hear him better, and we can obey him more fully?

I think that when God requires obedience of us, it tends to pull back the layers of our hearts and expose what is deep down inside. We feel that exposure of the soul. Maybe you’ve felt a little raw as God is growing you up.  Maturity causes us to believe that when we respond to Him with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our minds, He responds to us with His presence and the fullness of all He is.