Put Away Childish Things

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you, concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Shirley Weaver wants to take you there. And now, here's today's episode. Hello everyone and welcome.

So glad you are here. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13, 11. That chapter, of course, we refer to as the love chapter about the love of God. The expression of God's love in the life of a believer is so powerful.

We know that. But also, there's a growing up process, maturing in the faith that causes our expression, individual expression, the way that people know us to be compelling in the sense, attractive in the sense that others are drawn to the Spirit of God that is on the inside of us. And the way that happens is connected to training, mentorship. We know the Bible term is discipleship. Growing up into the things of the Lord, not being a child, childlike faith, saying childish things, and just one or two here. You know, people have believed for some reason, not sure where it came from.

Well, I am sure where it came from. It came from a misunderstanding of one verse of scripture that when we die, we become angels. See, arrow like that incubates in the heart of a person who is not around someone more mature, helping them, sort of guiding, directing the path. So the scripture, 1 Corinthians 13, 11, when I was a child, implying I'm not that way anymore, because I determined, last part of that verse, I put away childish things.

I put those things away. It is important as we grow closer and closer to end time, rumblings, the shaking that God is doing, the end time markers along the way of where we are in the last of the last days. There must be, in that setting, someone willing to train new believers, someone willing to take on the task of training new believers. Otherwise, we come up with far-fetched, very religious, bombastic-sounding catchphrases, like when we get our angel wings. Listen, if you're a born-again believer, you're not going to get angel wings. You are a higher class.

You don't need angel wings, okay? Two things, one from C.S. Lewis. In this matter of maturing and outgrowing these childlike, the way that we adapt to childlike thinking, C.S. Lewis gave in, this is his volume on Reflections on the Psalms.

C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms. And the point that I want to get to is after he refers to a couple of things that are very fleshly. You know, if I am angry with you, maybe my anger is coming from a source other than you, but I project it onto you, pull you into the penalty that we all pay when we indulge our flesh in heightened anger. That's one instance that he refers to. Another would be this whole thing of being so sensitive, and so feeling-oriented.

It sort of makes your skin crawl to be around that kind of absence of self-discipline, but many are, and it does seem that that number is growing. When in fact, behind that display, or at the root of that display of such a feeling-oriented person, their situation is that the real trouble is within them. We talked in our last episode about the kingdom of God is within you, and so the space that is within you fills up with the kingdom of God or something else. We fill it with the kingdom of God or something else. So when a person is so feeling-oriented, it is the thing that is underlying their own envy, vanity, pride that comes out into the open to act with such a chip on the shoulder.

C.S. Lewis said this in response, such tactics often succeed. The other parties give in. They give in not because they don't know what is really wrong with us, but because they have long known it. Only too well they have known it.

But it needs surgery. They know and realize we will never face. So the tactics succeed because people give in to our chip on the shoulder tender feelings, our anger, outbreak display. They just give in.

They just comply because they know that we're wallowing in our own flesh, and they know that we will not submit to change, so they have to adjust. And he has other insight right here. He said, C.S. Lewis said, and so they win by cheating. They win by cheating. Think about that. They win by cheating. But the unfairness is very deeply felt.

Indeed, what is commonly called sensitiveness or anger outburst is the most powerful engine of domestic tyranny, sometimes a lifelong tyranny. Again, C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms. You know, we can choose to be different, and we can also choose to be willing to disciple, mentor, train a new believer so that if they are in a hole like this one that Lewis has described, they can be extracted from that hole. Delivered is the Bible word, and it's a better existence than being so caught up in ourselves. Another point from the wisdom of Oswald Chambers, probably, well, the number – the first mentor in my Christian life through the resources of the things that he – well, he didn't write, but those around him combined, compiled. And so following his teaching, through his writings, following his death, I was mentored. So many people have been.

Oswald Chambers makes this point. Seeing is never believing. We interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging.

Therefore, the nature of faith is that it must be tried. So the expression, which is, I don't know if it's the colloquialism or what you call that, seeing is believing, but that is not a biblical principle. I know that sometimes we say things that sound religious, therefore we think they are connected to the Bible. They're not.

This is one of them. Seeing is believing is not connected to Bible thought. It's man's thought.

It's something to say, really. But Oswald Chambers makes the point, and this is important, seeing is never believing because we see and interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. So see, what we believe becomes first. And then we extrapolate from what we believe the interpretation of what we are in fact seeing. And the next point that faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging.

So see, that's the example. I believe God have complete confidence in Him, trust Him based on His word promise to me, make that plural, words, promises, and then as I see God emerging, I marry the two, what I believe. My confidence, my faith marries, joins to what is actually unfolding in front of me.

Therefore, the nature of faith is that it must be tried. So when that happens again, what I believe is already established, it's already in place, actually defining my maturity or absence of maturity. And because what I believe is in place, then as things unfold, I interpret those things.

Those things take on definition as they relate to me. And then we will see what happens. Because the nature of faith is that it must be tried. If my confidence in God is bold and absolute and not subject to change, then we will see.

We will see as circumstances unfold, the situation emerges, we will see exactly where my faith is sourced, anchored, and how effective it is. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became mature, a man, I put away childish things. The love of God in your heart compels you to mature. His power manifested in you pushes out self-confidence, self-pity, victimization, all those flesh inspired worldviews, really is what it is. It's the way you see, the way such a situation like that would see the world around them, that everything has to be tuned in to them. Everything pivots on them. And see, nothing could be further from the truth. Everything pivots on God's love, the way that he pours it out, the many ways that he does so, the way that a new believer can learn these truths as they are discipled in the faith, so that the time does come that they leave childhood, put away childish things, and become a mature believer. And I would just throw in right there, and when we do become that mature believer, we quickly not only see, but seize the opportunity to then turn and invest in those who are new in the faith, because their very spiritual life depends on proper nurturing. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.