Maturing

Maturing

Grain matures. Fruit matures. We grow up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. A man also matures for his fall. We can even say that in all cases a maturing takes place in a man’s heart, whether it is for one thing or another. He matures for a melting down or for a hardening, for being set free or for imprisonment, for exaltation and for humiliation.

God’s righteousness is unfathomable! His wisdom, His marvelous ways, and His hidden labors are indescribable! His hidden activity is unsearchable in its entirety. However, through faithfulness and devotion we can behold His secret counsel to an increasingly greater extent.

For example, when a man is God-fearing, faithful, and enduring in poverty and other physical tribulations, this will produce various types of maturing. People are slow and sluggish to do good. They want to help, but are usually late in offering it. But after a while as they notice such a person’s faithfulness and endurance, they will mature to helping him to a greater degree; and those who have nothing with which to help take his need and faithfulness increasingly to heart so that they mature to helping him when the opportunity presents itself. The God-fearing man matures himself through his trials—by being faithful and patient—to accept help with a good conscience.

If he endures until the help is mature and until he himself has matured through trials, “two birds are killed with one stone!” Behold God’s marvelous, hidden activity! The God-fearing man did not know of the help that was maturing in the hearts of several souls, but it was part of God’s plan all along. Just as spokes fit in a wheel, so the helpers’ maturing fit into the maturing of the person who needs help. They meet in God’s time.

Moreover, if our bitter enemy is able to sow his bad seed in the God-fearing man’s heart during the waiting period, and this seed is nourished, it will grow and mature. This happens because the man’s thoughts are turned away from simple faithfulness to Christ and corrupted because of bad influence. 2 Cor. 11:3. Because help, liberation, and the blessing have not yet matured, he begins to think that there is no reward for godliness or for being frugal. He discovers that it is foolish, or in other words, that the ungodly are right, at least partly. He thinks there is no one (including God!) who appreciates the fact that he is God-fearing or who understands to reward or acknowledge it. .

This is how he continues to think. This thought increases its hold on him. It matures. Eventually it matures to the point that he acts on it. The man who used to be so faithful begins to fail; he begins to be careless; he begins to follow the ways of the world. It seems silly to be faithful and enduring. It seems silly to live by faith. He believes he has to use his reasoning and fight for his rights.

Behold man’s foolish way! But notice God’s marvelous way! Just before the help and the blessing mature, and right before the man himself is mature, he fails and loses out on God’s marvelous blessing which was maturing during all this time; it was even on the way, so to speak!

How vital it is to persevere in doing good so we can receive the full reward! How vital it is to be persistent in resisting the evil so our thoughts are not in the least corrupted, driving us away from that simple faithfulness to Christ! Make no room at all for the bad seed in your heart, for then it will not be able to mature there either.