Christ Formed in You

Throughout our lives, we constantly develop and grow through all the stages of life.  With our parent’s help, we grew from a baby to a young child to the grown adults we are today.  Did you know that when we become Christians we start off like a little child and then we grow and mature spiritually throughout our lives as well?   

The apostle Paul talks about spiritual maturity and immaturity to the church at Corinth in 1 Cor. 3:2:  “I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.”  When a baby is born, they can only drink milk, but as they mature, they gradually transition to solid food.  The same is true when someone is born of the spirit, or born again.  We start as babies in Christ and drink foundation truths and as we mature, we feed on God’s Word. 

Just as a baby wouldn’t be left alone to fend for themselves, when someone is born spiritually they too need a spiritual father or mother to walk with them and pray them through the developmental stages as well. The apostle Paul in Galatians 4:19 did just that as he prayed for the new converts he was discipling; “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”  As great as a preacher that Paul was, he didn’t leave new converts alone to fend for themselves.  Rather, he labored and travailed in prayer for them, that Christ would be formed in them so they wouldn’t remain spiritual infants.  They needed to be rooted and grounded in their new relationship with God for the success of the gospel to be carried on to the next generations.

In our lives today, who are we fervently praying for, that Christ would be formed in them?  Do we look at discipleship as a conveyor belt of processes and procedures that we put new converts on, or do we get on our knees and pray for Christ to be formed in them?  Who are WE  being a “Paul” to?