The Question & The Only Answer!
The Question: What do you want to BE when you grow up?
Oftentimes, when growing up, this question was asked of us by parents, teachers, friends, and family. As a student of the Kindergarten curriculum, we may have participated in the annual “career hopeful wish” as my daughter did when she was young. In the local newspaper, the photographs revealed the variety of “careers” her classmates wanted to “BE” when they grew up. It was fun to read through their responses.
Then we began to “grow up” to leave behind our elementary childhood, moving into our uncomfortable middle school mind and body. Thank goodness, God does not leave us there but grows us into a strong high schooler. We have arrived!—or so we thought! Then after graduation, we began to realize that our answer way back in Kindergarten may not necessarily be the same answer we discovered as a seventeen-year-old.
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What did I want to be when I grew up?
After university study . . .
After trade school . . .
After military training . . .
After on-the-job training . . .
The question changes: Will we EVER really know what we want to BE when we grow up?!!!
The Answer really is quite easy.
- It was an easy answer back in Kindergarten, but maybe we were too young to see the answer.
- It was an easy answer back in middle school, but maybe we were too awkward to accept the answer.
- It was an easy answer back in high school, but maybe we were too full of our own self-awareness to want to see the truth.
- It was an easy answer back in our young adult season, but maybe we were too much into our own self-exploration to want to stop and truly KNOW the answer.
- It was an easy answer back in our early years of marriage and raising kids, but maybe we were much too busy to slow down to see.
Always—The answer to the question that we were asked so long ago & The answer to the question that formed as we lived-out our days—The Answer Really Is Quite Easy!
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.
Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
(Galatians 4: 4-7 NASB)
The Question: What do you want to BE when you grow up?
The Answer: Like Jesus! Yes, just like the “firstborn Son.”
Thank goodness, our Father—God—wanted more children!
Thank goodness, our Father—Almighty God—sent His only Son to redeem us (God’s creation)!
Thank goodness, our Father—Jehovah—provided the only way for us to be adopted into His family!
Thank Goodness!
Yes, thank You God, we can come to the place in our lives when we can cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Thank You God, we can come to the realization that we are & have always been slaves to our own sins.
But Hallelujah, God sent Jesus Christ to the world to make the way for us to know God & for us to become His—God’s!
“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
(Galatians 4: 7 NASB)
The Answer: Like Jesus! Yes, just like the “firstborn Son.”
How are we doing “living out” the Answer?
How are we doing in our season of sanctification—our “growing up” season?
One day soon, we will come to our Going Home day, and when we do, our Father God may just ask us another question as we arrive.
GOD’S QUESTION: WHO DID YOU BRING WITH YOU?
Let us live every day with our mind focused & fixed upon the firstborn Son.
Let us live every single one of our remaining days, with this second question securely planted in our heart, as we speak with others.
Let us live & Let us never forget God’s plan—to REDEEM the WHOLE WORLD!
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters;
and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
(Romans 8: 29-30 NASB)
God’s plan, all along, was to make us—Like Jesus, His Son!
God wants to see Jesus in us!
In our actions.
In our thoughts.
In our words.
In our reactions.
In our relationships with others.
In our careers.
In our homes.
In our daily activities.
In our worship of Him.
In our EVERYTHING!
- May we remember “Whose” we are, & May we remember who dwells deep within us—God’s Holy Spirit!
- May we walk worthy as the “sons & daughters” of Almighty God!
- May we walk worthy of the “calling” God has given to us—to be Christians—HIS Heirs!
God will never be satisfied with our “growth,” our “sanctification” until we arrive home to heaven, so—
May We Never Become Complacent in our Spiritual Growth.
If we were “ALL GROWN UP,” then God would bring us home already!!!
SO,
- Let us be bold in our witness & Let us be courageous as we share our testimony.
- Let us be willing to be molded by the Potter & Let us be willing to be trimmed.
- Let us be growing to become more & more & more & more—LIKE JESUS.
AND MAY WE
Remember—It is the Holy Spirit of God who has come to live permanently within us, who has sealed us forevermore!
Remember—It is upon Jesus—where we must set our eyes! Who we strive—to be Like!
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8: 38-39 NASB)