Oct 15
31
Spiritual growth is in many ways the reverse of carnal growth. When we
were little children we asked, we believed, we were dependent on our
parents and we were happy for it to be so. As we grew the sin we are
became more apparent. Our asking became more questioning than asking. We
put more confidence in our own understanding than our father and mother.
Our hand was still open for the freebies but we wanted them
independently of submitting to dad and mom. Eventually, we moved out,
stopped asking and depended only upon ourselves.
Reverse that order and we have spiritual growth in the inner man. Christ
finds his elect child completely “moved out”—separated in sin and death,
with all confidence in ourselves, too proud to ask God for anything.
When God first converts us we become new born babes. But we still have
our old flesh which questions and is far too confident. As God grows us
in grace, growing up in grace is to become children in malice. The more
we grow in grace the less we think we deserve the least of God’s favors
and the more dependent we become on the God of all grace. Rising to the
greatness of grace is not becoming self-sufficient but becoming more and
more dependent upon Christ and more desirous for the other to have the
honor. It is growing little, simple, and trustful in Christ as a little
child. –Clay Curtis