Blown Away

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine……. Ephesians 4:14

As soon as I walked into the kitchen late the other night I knew there was something wrong. When I’d left earlier in the evening there had been a white sheer curtain hanging on an extending rod in the window, now there was a bare black space! I guessed that my dear husband, a ‘fresh air fanatic’, had taken the rare opportunity in the Hong Kong summer to open some windows and let a cooling breeze run through the apartment, and the curtain had been a ‘victim’ of the breeze.

I was right! Early next morning I put my head out the window and there, eight floors below, on the top of the covered walkway that runs between our building and the next tower block, lay my curtain, rod and all. How could this have happened? The day before a swarm of contractors had been through our flat and removed every window (all at once), to drill more holes in order to re-hang them with extra rivets to prevent a window from crashing to the ground far below and causing grievous bodily harm to some innocent passer-by, as has been known to happen. After they left I had rehung the kitchen curtain, and in doing so I had obviously not made sure that the rod was securely extended to give it the strength it needed to withstand the breeze that had come through that evening.

As I considered this little event it caused me to think that it is possible for us to be like my curtain and become blown away by the winds that blow through our lives at various times. The scripture above speaks about being “tossed to and fro” by various doctrines that cause confusion. Paul is teaching about the need for the growth in maturity of believers in the church, and the various gifts God has given to the church to make maturity a reality. It is important for new believers to be firmly attached to a body of believers (a church) in order to ‘grow up in Christ in all things’ (vs 15). In this passage we see that we need to become mature in our faith, learning how to put off the old ways of our former life when we did not know Christ, and to exchange those ways for behaviour that is worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ (vs 1 – 13).

Growing and maturing as a Christian is a process. It doesn’t happen all at once, and it does not usually happen without our being trained by those whom God has appointed and gifted in the church to help us grow. Being in fellowship with other more mature believers and learning from them will keep us safe from false doctrine. In the process of growth we learn to put our spiritual roots down deep, through our growing understanding of God’s word, so that we become established and strong like a healthy tree. We can read about such trees in Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:8.

How strong is your attachment to a body of believers? Are you securely established in fellowship which will keep you ‘on the right track’ spiritually? If not you are probably not growing and maturing as you should be which leaves you vulnerable when the winds of life blow. Your roots may not be strong enough to hold you firm.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to grow and mature in a healthy way, to allow my roots to go down deep into the soil of your word so that I may be established for the times of trial that come upon me. Amen