Text- Psalm 144: 12- “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth…”
When a new child is born, one of the things that midwives do is to take certain body measurements of the baby. They then begin to plot a growth chart in order to monitor and track the growth of the child, usually from infancy to adolescence.
The above illustration shows how much we humans are preoccupied with the concept of growth. But then, although a lot of people pay attention to physical growth, not many are careful to ensure that their growth is all-encompassing.
My goal in today’s devotional is to teach you how to ensure that you have an allround growth in life. There are generally three kinds of growth that we must experience in life:
1. Growing Old
Growing old refers to increase in age. Everyone wants to grow old, yet almost everyone fears growing old because of some of the intricacies that may sometimes be associated with old age. Growing old comes with the passage of time so long as death does not occur.
Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians wrote, “Honor your father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6: 2-3). That is a simple formula for growing old! No measure of grace and anointing can replace that.
Honoring your parents (Ephesians 6:2-3), living a righteous life (Proverbs 16:31), keeping your tongue from evil (1 Peter 3:10), taking good care of your health, and the fear of God (Proverbs 10:27) are some of the things prescribed by the Word of God if you desire to grow old and live a full life.
2. Growing Up
You see, there are 40-year old boys and there are 20-year old men. This implies that it is possible to be growing old and not grow up. Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature; that is the right way to grow!
Beloved, make sure that as you are growing old, you are also growing up. See to it that as you are increasing in age and in stature, you are also increasing in wisdom. No matter how old you are, you must ensure that each day of your life is spent to advance you to a higher level of maturity.
Starting from today, evaluate yourself on these grounds: - Are you making good decisions? - Do you easily take responsibility? - Do you exercise self-control? - Are you setting right priorities? - Do you use your time profitably? The questions above will tell you how much you have grown up and how much of growing up you still have to do. If you know other valuable things, you may add them to your own list.
PRAYER
Lord, please satisfy me with long life and help me so that each day of my life will be spent to advance me to a higher level of maturity in Jesus Name.