“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14 NIV
Paul is talking to the Christians in Ephesus about growth and the process of maturing in our walk with God, in our faith. When we are first saved, our faith has been described or compared with that of a newborn baby. We have very little information about what is going on around us, we need to be fed in order to grow, we have trouble walking in the ways we should go and our emotions are heightened.
Some people are offended by this comparison, however, it is the most accurate description that I can think of. Newborns do not know how the world works around them, they are given this information over time. For example, when it is time for a newborn baby to go to sleep the parent, usually, holds the baby and rocks the baby and the baby begins to form the habit of how they should soothe themselves to go to sleep. They did not have this information before.
As a new Christian, we don’t know what we are to do in most situations. We most likely don’t know about tithing or the importance of prayer. We are guided by other Christians who have matured in their faith, they show us what we are to do, this is how we learn what giving back means and that prayer is our life line to God.
As a newborn, babies cannot get feed themselves and if they could, they wouldn’t know what they are to eat. As a new Christian we don’t know that God’s word is the spiritual food we need in order to grow and that we are fed by reading the Bible, listening to sermons and even listening to worship music that is honoring God. Christians who are mature in their faith can help us to build a devotional life that consists of reading God’s word. They help a new Christian to understand what they are reading as well as what it being said during sermons and apply those lessons to their growth.
Newborns do not have the muscle strength to stand on their legs and walk around. As a new Christian, we also do not have the muscle strength to walk in faith on our own. The devil makes sure that we face situations that require us to walk in faith, trust God to deliver us and not give into our fleshly desires. He wants to try and have us abandon our new found faith because as a new Christian, we don’t have those muscles to walk in our faith the way we should. This is when we need other Christians to help us understand what is happening and that part of growth is maintaining our focus on Jesus and not doubting Him as soon as a situation arises that we deem to be unfair.
Newborn babies have very little control over their emotions and have basically one way to communicate everything, crying. They cry when they are hungry, when they need changed and when they need comforted. Their emotions drive what they do and how they communicate with others. They do not know that there are other ways of communicating with those around them in order to have their needs met because they haven’t learned those ways yet.
As a new Christian, our emotions are heightened because we have just found this wonderful Lord who saved us from an eternity in torment and gave us a gift of eternity with Him. We feel like we are all in because these are wonderful feelings, until something goes wrong and then we are not being led by those wonderful feelings any longer. However, we don’t know what to do with any of those feelings or how to communicate with others so that we are learning to control them.
The devil will place people in our lives who will challenge our new way of thinking by making fun of us for believing in a spiritual loving being, God. They will tell us that we don’t have to listen to what the Bible says we are to do in situations all the time and that since God is so loving, He will forgive you for not listening this time. That God will understand if you still act in the same ways you acted before because God can’t really expect you to give up everything that you know and the fun that you have just because you believe in Him and it is not in line with what the Bible says.
When we choose to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are accepting a gift of forgiveness and eternal life. We are committing our lives to try and be like Jesus in every way that we can, listening to Him, not others who use God’s word as a basis for their beliefs but then go off course, making up doctrines of their own that are not based in God’s word. We are choosing to learn from Jesus and those Christians He has placed in our lives to teach us according to the entirety of God’s word, not just parts of it. We are choosing to lean on Jesus when we struggle with life and life’s situations.
None of this is easy but it is ALL worth it to be a child of God, receiving His love and guidance. God knows this isn’t easy and that is why He has placed those mature Christians in our lives to help us. If you are a new Christian, my encouragement to you is to keep growing, listen to God and His word, maintain continual connection with Jesus. If you have been a Christian for a while and feel like you are not growing in your walk with God, I encourage you to find a Bible based church, mature Christians who will help you understand God’s word and lean on God more. Always lean on God more.