Time to Grow Up, How To Mature Through Adversity

Time to Grow Up

When God saved Israel and led them into the wilderness, it was an amazing thing. When God parted the Red Sea, it was magnificent! But then life continued. The next days that followed weren’t as easy. Israel was not out of the woods yet. The journey was only just beginning. And when things didn’t go as planned, Israel had an immature response. “God, yesterday you saved us. But today you left us. We will surely perish.”

God certainly didn’t want Israel to perish. He just wanted them to be able to go through hard stuff with Him, without falling apart. He wanted to develop maturity in them. I mean, it’s the wilderness after all. They call it that for a reason. It’s wild, barren, rough, difficult. And very dry. There will be trouble, but there’s no reason to panic. But sometimes, at the slightest sign of trouble, we fall apart. God doesn’t want to save you from every little bad thing. Constantly.

God Wants You To Mature, Not Fall Apart

God wants to develop maturity in you through hard times. He wants to develop a relationship with us, and then we trust in who He is and not run around anxiously all the time. “Oh God, help fix this, do this, do that. Make it better. All is lost.” Even though it might be difficult, we are still going somewhere with God. And not only is God with us through it, but He has given us everything we need for where we are right now. Just because we aren’t flowing in milk and honey like we thought, that doesn’t mean we aren’t exactly where we’re supposed to be, and that God isn’t listening. We aren’t lacking it all. It may be hard and difficult, but with God, we are going to get through this if we don’t get off track and fall into immature thinking.

Israel had all they needed. Food, water, even clothes and shoes never wore out, though they weren’t in the promised land yet. They should have realized God was providing everything they needed for where they were at that moment. If they just would have looked harder, they would have seen that there was so much evidence of God around them. They should have been thankful to be in a place where God was so evident, but yet they became distracted by what they didn’t have. Also, Israel wasn’t interested in knowing this God who had delivered them. They were only interested in getting to the promised land and being comfortable. They didn’t want to develop a maturity or a relationship, they just wanted to be saved and to go on with their lives.

The Immature Response

Like Israel, we think since we aren’t fully bathing in riches and health or prosperity, that we are lost and God has given up on us. He has left us alone to perish, or we never really take the time to know God. We want hard stuff to go away. And when it doesn’t, we assume the worst. We pout. We act immaturely.

When we get saved, we have this impression that everything should be perfect from here on out. We think that if everything doesn’t go 100% right all the time, then something is wrong. God isn’t with us. We start to look at life unrealistically. Life should be better! Absolutely. But we also still live in this world. And in this world, there will be trouble. Not everything is going to be perfect. But remaining steadfast through the imperfect is the key. Maybe certain things don’t work out like they should. Remember, it doesn’t always mean you aren’t where you should be or that God isn’t with you. Stick with the plan. Focus on the goal and keep pressing forward.

Can’t We Take the Easy Road?

Well, can’t we simply skip the wilderness? Maybe. Maybe there is an easier route. But the connection and depth of relationship with God just isn’t the same. God doesn’t want to just get us somewhere. He wants to have a relationship with us through it. God wants to develop a new unshakable faith and an unshakable depth so you can stand in the midst of a storm and not fall apart. Anyone can go down the easy road, but few are willing to allow God to take them someplace deeper and greater. Few are willing to grow up through the wilderness.

And maybe we are in the wilderness a lot longer than we should be. Maybe God is just waiting for us to finally grow up and mature so we can continue. Maybe everything is on hold because we refuse to grow up in reality. God is patient enough to keep waiting. I hear people all the time say things like, “I don’t understand, I’m doing everything right and it still didn’t go my way.” They get depressed and discouraged, thinking God isn’t answering or helping them. They believe He has forgotten them or doesn’t care. “I put so much effort into such and such, but it didn’t work out. Why am I still struggling when everyone else is succeeding?” We so quickly throw away all of our efforts and faith over the silliest things and forget the hard stuff. We don’t even make it that far. We stop seeing that in the midst of all this, we have a lot more than we realize. God is providing everything we need, but yet we so quickly forget who He is and who we are becoming in Him.

We are Easy Targets

We need to grow up. Just because everything doesn’t go perfectly doesn’t mean it’s time to abandon ship. God wants your faith to be cemented in who He is, not in hardship. But all too often we are like Israel at the first sign of trouble. We fall back into our old ways, we start to complain, and we focus on everything we don’t have instead of what we do. How can we press through the hard and difficult when we can’t even press through the shallow and insignificant?

Like Israel, we have amazing moments in God where everything is possible. We believe and have great faith. We start to move forward and everything is going great. Then darkness starts to press back and we crumble. All is lost. We begin to lose heart. We waver and doubt. God hasn’t changed at all. Nothing is different. We should be full of faith and able to press forward through the difficulties ahead. But instead, we cave. Darkness is like, “Well, that was easy.” We act all rough and tough spiritually, but really we were of little threat.

Paul We Know, But Who Are You?

Sadly, darkness doesn’t even know our name. We go to prayer walks or prayer meetings, and we boldly command the principalities and darkness over cities to back off. How cute we must look to them. “Oh, look, they’re playing church again.” When we pray and speak, darkness probably just laughs. “Merely send a little trouble their way. We’ll be rid of them.” Instead, we need to become immovable objects in the spirit that darkness avoids. There’s no point exerting our efforts against them. They won’t budge.

But we don’t just magically become that overnight. Well, maybe that one person you know. But for the most part, the rest of us must learn and develop a deep strength and faith that comes from an actual relationship with God. God wants us to grow up and develop this attitude of pressing forward with Him. He wants us to mature to where we can stand against whatever and not back down, not be shaken, not give up, and run away defeated because our favorite TV show got canceled. God wants us to develop a maturity in him that enables us to actually be able to overcome darkness and not flee from it.

Giants? What Giants?

If Israel had allowed God to develop this maturity within them, when they eventually got to the land with the giants, they would have been ready and would have had a different response. Going through the wilderness with their God should have prepared them for the day when they would stand before giants and prepare them to have a proper response cemented in faith in their God. Instead, they responded in fear because they didn’t allow the wilderness to serve its purpose. Instead of allowing God to prepare them along the way, they acted like children. “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. It’s too hot. Are we there yet?”

Wilderness Maturity

We must learn what it actually means to remain. To trust what it means to press forward, to continue. Even though it looks less than ideal. To look up, see, and not stop seeing where our help comes from. To not believe that our help has been cut off. When darkness pushes back, we don’t cave, we rise up in faith in our God, in his power and in His might, and push back.

We don’t throw in the towel so quickly.

We can’t start allowing things to throw us off track by letting trouble work us up. You’re making yourself an easy target. Trouble doesn’t shake mature people up. They just keep pressing. Feel like you’ve been in the wilderness too long? Well, maybe it’s time to grow up. Stop letting every little thing discourage you. Trust in God. Listen to him. Talk to him. Get to know this great God who has delivered you and wants to see you completely free.

So maybe everything isn’t perfect. Put that behind you and keep walking. Most likely you have everything you need. Remain steadfast in what you believe. Let God develop a maturity in you that allows you to become exactly who you need to become for Him. Let the wilderness serve its purpose, let it create in you a level of maturity and a depth of relationship with God. So one day you can stand before giants and not back down, but take the land that God is giving you.

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