Growing Up Emotionally

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Emotionally healthy Christians don’t just happen overnight. As was said at the beginning of this series, growing spiritually requires emotional growth. They’re tied together. It’s the will of God that we prosper or succeed in every area of life. For that to happen we must grow emotionally. As we age, there must be an increased capacity to appropriately respond to life situations.

No one should want to remain an emotional infant. The value of the local church according to scripture brings out of us, or stimulates a motive to grow up. Rubbing shoulders with others who are in pursuit of who they are in Christ is helpful. Scripture teaches Jesus, the head of the church, has in place men and women, who have themselves, grown up in him, who now help develop those who follow after them.

Eph 4:13

Ephesians 4:13 NKJV

till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is a phrase referring to Gods expectations of what should be happening culturally in local churches. We should be growing people up. So, a good question church leaders should ask themselves; Are we growing people up spiritually and emotionally? How do we measure success?

This idea of a perfect (or mature) man, is one who is fully standing upright, standing, utilizing the full length of his physical body, rather than sitting, bending over, or squatting down. Physically speaking, we don’t start off standing and running. It was always exciting to witness our children become mobile and crawl around on the floor; then to take their first steps walking. I’m at my full potential when I stand up.

I don’t measure success in growing people up until later in their life. Heather was in the first youth group I started in Crescent, OK in 1987. Heather was part of about 20 teens I discipled for three years, she is a confirmed success story. She has kept in touch and has continued in her faith. Heather’s no longer crawling spiritually and emotionally. She’s over forty years old, married, and has been a mother for many years.

It’s vitally important we communicate biblical expectations to believers. For instance, it’s expected of us to understand what it takes for God to have pleasure in us; what it takes to become accurate witnesses and representatives of His Character and love. He expects us to come into agreement with Him. We should test-out well.

2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

T

Anthony

2 Tim 2:15

When Christians are graciously living in Godly standards we should celebrate it. When young people in our family express a desire to live up to standards that may be higher than the previous generation, they should be encouraged in it. Recently a grandmother shared with me, a picture of her gran-daughter, who happens to be a part of the OU women's golf team. Grandma took pride in how beautiful her gran-daughter looked, but was critical of her moral standards.

Grandma said her gran-daughters standards were too-high. She mentioned her gran-daughter refuses to allow boys to kiss her. She tells them that she has reserved that kind of affection for when she gets married, for her husband. I stood there thinking, wow! What dignity and self-love at work in this young woman. Some dude will be blessed.

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Sometimes believers are eager to grow in head knowledge only. We become willing containers of information and forget about using it beyond the opportunities to impress someone with our knowledge about the bible or spiritual subjects. If I’m practicing what I know, intrinsic is the emotional growth, because I’m willingly putting myself in situations that require better responses from me.

__________

In A religious expert attempts to entrap Jesus with questions. His first one, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus has a curious response when he answers a question with a question effectively saying; ‘Tell me what you think the bible says about your question?’

In -37

In A religious expert attempts to entrap Jesus with questions. His first one, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus has a curious response when he answers a question with a question effectively saying; ‘Tell me what you think the bible says about your question?’

The expert got it right. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

The expert should have stopped while he was ahead. No, he thought it clever, to play on the idea of who is considered our neighbor?

Jesus, used an illustration/parable to point out that whoever you have the opportunity to love on is your neighbor.