Grow - Every New Believer is a Baby

"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate."  Romans 7:15 (NLT)

Paul in his letter to the Romans admitted that he too needed some "growing up" to do. In today's secular lingo, this is called "adulting", which in essence can be described as doing the right thing as an adult should.

What we are forgetting is that once a person becomes a new believer in the faith, that person is essentially a baby. And as a baby, needs a whole lot of "growing up" as well as the appropriate guidance and nurturing.

Think about it, if a mature believer and teacher like Paul needed it, I would dare say, we all need it all the more. No one is born (or born again) knowing everything already. We all need to learn. And thus a new believer needs to go through a specific process, which is called "discipleship". 

It is a process. And it takes time. But like in every essential thing, we need it for it would be harder if we do not go through this series of steps, otherwise we are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over as well as making the same mistakes other "babies" are committing. (Or we might end up putting our faith in a counterfeit belief system or a made-up ministry or worse, totally give up on our new found faith).

Now if you are ready to move forward and grow in your new found faith and to step out of your ego (and your comfort zone) and take your baby or toddler steps, then we can begin this journey together. 

I believe one of our first steps is to understand and get this truth down:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

Like Paul admitted, he wanted to do the right things, but even in his mature (adult) standing, he ends up doing the things he knows he shouldn't -- meaning in his own (human) strength, he cannot do it.

In the same way, we new believers cannot rely on our own selves or our own strength or our deeds and our own judgments because we were saved not because of who we were, but rather, we were saved not because we deserve it or because we were good enough. In fact, none of us are good enough, that is the very reason why we needed a Savior in the first place. And He saved us by us putting our faith in Him, who is ready and willing and able to save us. Not by anything else except us accepting His free gift of salvation. Once, you get that down, everything else would be easier to understand.

If you are ready, the Lord is even more ready and more willing. Pray and ask Him to give you a real desire to get to know His perfect will and the hunger to get to know the real heart of our Lord and Savior. Ask to have the appetite to eat spiritual food -- or be hungry to read and hear His Word, the bible. And pray for the Lord to open up your spiritual eyes and spiritual ears and your heart to be able to understand His Word.


Note:  The process of discipleship is the natural progression of surrendering to the will of our Abba Father, turning around and coming back to Him our Creator and receiving His gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.