My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. – Psalm 73:26
The Christian life is a progressive movement toward spiritual maturity. Your experience of following Jesus should be taking you somewhere. The goal of your growth is to be transformed into the image of the glory of God.
So what do disciples look like when they are spiritually mature or at least moving toward maturity? Well, some of them look like people who once didn’t know how to control their anger, but now they understand how to maintain self-control. Other growing Christians look like people who at one time struggled and lost the battle against any sin that you can imagine, but now in the strength of Christ, they are living lives that are pleasing to God.
Spiritual maturity is not the same thing as sinless perfection. Anybody who tells you that you can go through life and never sin has just sinned because that’s a lie. Rather, mature Christians consistently bring area of their lives under the control of Jesus Christ.
So what is maturity? Very simply, maturity is thinking about, judging, and reacting to every situation biblically. When applying the Bible to your life is the rule and not the exception, when you place every area of your life under the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is biblical Christlikeness, because Jesus is intent on making you like Him. Who else is worthy for you to pattern your life after?
