Growing

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GROWING

Luke 2:39-40

39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

NIV

Although we know about the birth and the first eight days of the life of Jesus, we do not know about his first twelve years, in fact, we do not know anything about his first 30 years or so, except that time of his bar mitzvah in Jerusalem. However, what we know and what we can take a lesson from is that he grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. Of course, we are fully grown in a physical sense, in fact, we might be considered old. But we still need to become strong, and it is implied, strong in spirit, although the Greek does not include the word spirit, in expressing that Jesus increased, or grew and was empowered. However, the point is that we always need to be growing spiritually, and as we are filled with the Spirit, we would have to believe we would be filled with wisdom, if we are listening to the voice of the Spirit, that is. On the other hand, if we are only listening to the voice of either the world or of our “self” then we are not growing at all, but instead, we are shrinking, diminishing, becoming smaller, and having less and less wisdom. Of course, we would also think that the grace of God is upon us, as it was upon Jesus. We understand that He was Jesus, the Son of God, or God himself in the form of man, but if we are in Christ, then we have the same grace of God upon us as Jesus did. This particular Greek word translated as grace, is the Charis type of grace, which is mostly used for the favor of God was upon him. However, it is also used as the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace. Once again, we must see the difference between being governed by our own will, or by the power of divine grace. Because we live with the favor of God upon our lives, it should reflect in the way we live, always growing, becoming stronger and stronger in the Lord, in His word, and in the Spirit, so that we live our faith out loud, shining with the glory of God within us. All of that never depends on us, in any way, no matter our abilities, education, wealth, position, or anything else within ourselves. Our lives have everything to do with the power of the grace of God being upon us, so we continue to grow in wisdom and in stature with God and men, as we will see is said about Jesus. Let us always be growing.