“…but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ” (1 Corinthians 13:10, NAS)
Last week as I was talking to my daughter the Lord started talking to me about how life is one big and long transition. When you think you have things figured out, there comes the next change in our lives!
A baby is born, and immediately starts crying because of the change of environment. The body functions are not comfortable, because now the baby has to learn how to feed and digest the milk. And then when the baby finally reaches a place of balance, it is time to be weaned! And after that comes school, a brother or a sister, different foods, and all the changes that come with time, and growth never stops.
Then I started thinking that the exact same things happen in our spiritual lives. First we are born again, and then we are always being challenged by God to grow and mature. If we start feeling a little too comfortable in one level, the Lord always finds a way—as a good Father—to challenge us to grow, to try new things, to experience and taste, to do things we have never done before. There is always the human tendency to settle and try to be at ease, but it seems like God will always find a way to force us to move on to the next thing, even if He needs to dry up the source of water and food that has kept us alive before, like He did with Elijah (1 Kings 17:5-9).
As I was waiting on the Lord and reading about this idea, I also found something really interesting that John Robert Stevens said: “Sometimes the greatest weight that you can have is not something that is wrong, but something that is so good in your life that you can’t see the better thing or the best thing that God has for you.”
It is interesting to see that we tend to bond to the good things and experiences we have with the Lord and other people, with places and things and that it kind of defines who we are in our own minds, but we can’t forget that there are better things prepared for us. “…because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:40, NAS)
“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:13–14, NLT)
Somehow I want to have the same drive that the apostle is talking about in these two verses and always be ready to leave behind even the good things to reach to the better things!