Maturing in Faith

There is a scene in the second episode of the original Thundercats series that, while not specifically for Christians, reveals something interesting about both earthly life and spirituality, as well as the Christian's relationship with God:

(Tygra) — Don't forget to bring the Claw-Shield and the Sword, Lion-O, in case you need to summon us.
(Lion-O) — Yes, I will handle anything that may come up. — (Lion-O walks away from the group)
(Panthro) — Was that a good idea, Tygra?
(Cheetara) — Are we helping Lion-O by asking him to do unpleasant tasks?
(Tygra) Remember, our friend Lion-O spent ten galactic years in a suspension capsule. During that time, he only grew in size, but the fact is he didn't mature: he missed out on the experiences through which people mature.

And so it was, while going out to check the area where they would build their headquarters, the "Cat's Lair," that Lion-O had his first encounter with his greatest enemies, the mutants, and especially the greatest of them all, Mumm-Ra…
Lion-O was pressured to mature rapidly precisely because he inherited the right to lead the Thundercats from his father, but he only completed the process, becoming the leader by merit, throughout the series, by overcoming the challenges imposed by the Thundercats Code, proving himself capable of overcoming the challenges of the other members: strength (Panthro), speed (Cheetara), and intelligence (Tygra).

A person who doesn't go through experiences, even unpleasant ones, will never become a truly mature human being.
The expression "spoiled child," in many cases, can be applied metaphorically to grown-ups or even older people: those who are protected from everything, whom parents, family, and friends try to prevent from facing situations they dislike, will lack the emotional structure and ability to cope with adversity, always depending on others to solve their problems and, often, becoming enraged when contradicted or frustrated.

This rule also applies, and even more emphatically, to the maturing of faith.
Recalling my own personal experience, I remember meeting a certain lady who disliked her son-in-law, whom she called "a piece of trash," and said she prayed every day that her daughter would separate from him, but she never revealed the reason for her dislike.
However, after more than a year, she ended up seeing her daughter not only continue her relationship with him, but also formalize their union in a registry office.
The result?
This woman abandoned her faith, saying that God was not faithful and that she no longer wanted to know about Him.
Later, I learned the reason she rejected her son-in-law: he was a waiter in a restaurant, a profession she felt was unsuitable for her daughter, a high school teacher…

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
What I gave you to drink was milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.,
Nor can you even now, because you are still worldly.
Since all kinds of envy and discord prevail among you,
Are you perhaps being worldly, living according to purely worldly standards?

(1ˢᵗ Corinthians 3:1-3 – KJA)

Indeed, there are people who, as Paul says, refuse to experience the "solid food" of faith, always having to receive "milk" because they are still carnal, that is, because they are concerned with secondary issues, vanities, and personal preferences, and ignore the core of the Gospel: the renunciation of one's own will for the love of the Savior, in the certainty of living eternally in His presence in the New Jerusalem.

No one says that growing up is easy, neither in everyday life nor, especially, in one's relationship with God.
Paul himself, the greatest evangelist the world has ever known, had to be aggressively converted by Jesus, who blinded him and forced him to fast for three days (see Acts 9:1-30) and later even placed a "thorn in the flesh" on him (see 2ⁿᵈ Corinthians 12:7-10…in addition to all the afflictions he endured throughout his ministry, having been flogged five times by order of the authorities of his own people (according to 2ⁿᵈ Corinthians 11:24), remaining imprisoned for about 5 of his 30 years of ministry and, at the end, being executed.
However, without having gone through all of that, he would not have acquired the spiritual maturity that led him to never deny Christ under any circumstances! Nor would the comforting epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, written by him while he was in prison, exist today.

Precisely because of their ignorance of the fact that the process of maturing in faith is hard and even painful, many so-called "believers" refuse to follow the path of Christ in times of difficulty, preferring to wait only for earthly blessings and the permanent fulfillment of their desires, and even more so, in the exact way they imagine it should happen!
Who hasn't seen one of these people "prophesying" about a car, a house, money, a job, promotions, recognition, health... all those things that God didn't promise anyone He would provide?

In this, many of these "believers" resemble Kevin Sorbo's character in the first film of the "God's Not Dead" franchise, in which he plays a militant atheist professor who ends up being unmasked by one of his students, who proves to the whole class that he was not actually an atheist, but rather, someone revolted against God because the Creator did not prevent his mother from dying of cancer when he was 12 years old: the student, much more spiritually mature, told him that "sometimes, God's answer is 'NO'.".

As mentioned, the process of maturing is not easy—nor can one specifically demand that Christians enjoy going through it—which can lead many to shed tears and feel dissatisfied, especially when they see that so many others apparently do not face such things.
However, carrying the cross and persevering—even amidst difficult, painful, and unpleasant situations, and having personal desires unfulfilled by God—is the process that all truly mature and steadfast Christians go through.
And it is precisely through this maturation that their faith leads them forward, until the day of entering the New Jerusalem… something that “children” in faith easily reject, thinking only of the “here and now” and receiving from the Heavenly Father everything they desire (something that not even an earthly father does).

Therefore, let each one face this difficult process as a guarantee that God truly desires their good, and not their damnation: He corrects and chastises the son He receives, making him as similar as possible to the image of Jesus in earthly life, until the fullness of perfection acquired in eternity.
Let us mature through the pain, for in the end, it will all have been worth it.
To God be all the glory!

In the Bonds of Calvary

Eduardo Pydd Teixeira

Everything seems to indicate that the end times are unfolding ever more rapidly, and before the Lord returns like a thief in the night, we can already observe signs of the prophesied reign of the Antichrist consolidating not only in Brazil, but throughout the world!
In the 2023 phase of "The Worst Gospel," I decided to use new formats in the hope of helping to increase the reach of content related to the Scriptures—stories, videos, shorter texts, guest authors…—and this publication, which I took the liberty of revising and illustrating, is part of that project.
Thank you for reading this far.
I still need all the help I can get: comments, shares, and reactions help spread this content, which was entirely produced with the intention of contributing to the edification of the Body of Christ in the world.