Communication

The Fullness of the Stature

by Terry Barlow
09/06/20
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Some of us may have attained to the stature of Christ (though even that is a stretch) but only a precious few have ever attained to the fullness of the stature of Christ. For example, many adolescents reach their full physical height by 17 years of age or sooner, but do not fill out and solidify before 10 years after that. So too in the spirit we may grow by leaps and bounds in our early years of walking with Christ and relating to Him. During that time the outlines of our faith relationship with Him are put in place. But the details within that outline require many more years of dealing and patient perseverance. Those latter years of steady plodding along are not as dramatic and exciting perhaps as the years of visible spurts of growth that preceded them. Or it is a different more inward kind of drama and excitement. It contains adventure but not the same type that necessarily takes your breath away as much as the quiet type of adventure that leads you to someone or someplace you never expected to be, even if only in the realm of memory. You might find yourself suddenly thinking and praying for someone you haven't thought about in years, which is crucial, because that one may be in dire need and you might be the only one praying for that person on the face of the 🌎 earth! Those are the kinds of details of fullness that are developed in the outlines of the stature of Christ that were established much earlier in your spiritual life and journey.

  All growth must be solidified. Another example of vital detail within the outline of the stature of Christ has to do with our words. If we are not careful it can happen gradually and imperceptibly that we can come to a place where our words have come to mean less and less. Little failures to keep our words here and there tend to multiply until we come to a condition where we don't even believe them ourselves anymore. That's a dangerous place to be. But if we have recognized that tendency and have begun to be more diligent about honoring our word and less flippant about making even casual verbal commitment, then we are on our way toward filling in another detail in the fullness of the character of Christ in our own character. Christ loved his life on this earth, and the Apostle Peter who knew him and walked with him exhorted us in his first epistle in the third chapter that we can't come to a place of loving life without a genuine control of our words. God, help us all in this area too. Amen.