IN TIME

After recognizing my recent foolish desire to instantly master the spiritual discipline of fasting, I began to evaluate my spiritual growth over the years, and I can clearly see two things:

1) My growth has been very slow with occasional growth spurts.

2) God has been extremely patient with me (as He is with you, too!). 

I can relate to what Robert Mulholland writes in Invitation to a Journey: "It is not surprising that we, as members of an instant gratification culture, tend to become impatient with any process of development that requires of us more than a limited involvement of our time and energies. If we do not receive the desired results almost instantly, we become impatient and frustrated" (24).

I have often noted parallels between the human spirit and the human body, and Mulholland does as well, here especially in terms of slow growth over time: 

"Spiritual growth is, in large measure, patterned on the nature of physical growth. We do no expect to put an infant into its crib at night and in the morning find a child, an adolescent or yet an adult. We expect that infant to grow into maturity according to the processes that God ordained for physical growth to wholeness. The same thing is true of our spiritual life" (25).

For proper physical growth, "the processes that God ordained" include good nutrition and exercise. For proper spiritual growth, God has ordained prayer, study of Scripture, corporate worship and a host of other spiritual disciplines. 

If we neglect such things, we will remain spiritual infants. If we partake of the spiritual disciplines, we will see our spirits grow to maturity. 

In time.