Spiritual FTT

By John Stallings


When a scrawny, listless, dull-eyed baby is brought to a physician and the physician pronounces, "F.T.T", the parents are in world of hurt.

F.T.T often suggests that the parents are negligent, or abusive, or psychologically unfit, or at the very least too immature to be entrusted with a baby.

F.T.T. is an acronym to describe an ailment where—for unknown reasons—a newborn infant is unable to gain weight or to grow.

F.T.T. stands for “Failure To Thrive.”

Sometimes it happens when a parent or care-giver is depressed, and the depression seems to get passed down. Sometimes something seems to be off in an infant’s metabolism for reasons no one can understand. FTT is one of those mysterious, terribly medical phrases that sounds like an explanation but in truth, explains nothing.

NOTHING MORE NORMAL THAN GROWTH

One of the most common and widespread activities of the natural world around us is growth. The universe is alive and growing and we just naturally expect it. Children grow, often more than their parents would wish. I’ve been shocked at the suddenness with which tiny babies develop into little children and next thing you know they’re sitting on the front row in church. Then almost overnight they’re in school and then almost overnight they’re graduating from college. To me this is a beautiful thing to watch, although it makes me feel old.

A wobbly-legged puppy is a full grown dog within a few short months. Trees grow, flowers grow, Institutions grow, and Nations grow. Growth is universal. But more important than any of this is the growth that takes place in man. Man grows physically, intellectually and spiritually. It’s the last of those that is supremely important.

Some time ago I heard a minister tell about going to a 40th high school reunion. I didn’t know there was such a thing but there obviously is.

For months he saved to take his wife back to the place and the people he’d left four decades before. The closer the time came for the reunion, the more excited he became, thinking of all the wonderful stories he would hear about the changes and the accomplishments these old friends would tell him. One night before he left he even pulled out his old yearbooks, read the silly statements and the good wishes for the future that students write to each other.

He wondered what ol’ Number 86 from his football team had done. He wondered if any others had encountered this Christ who had changed him so profoundly. He even tried to guess what some of his friends would look like, and what kind of jobs and families some of these special friends had.

The day came to leave and a friend drove them to the airport. Their enthusiasm was contagious. The friend encouraged them to have a great time and assured them he’d be there to pick them up on their return home.

The friend watched as this man and his wife got off the plane two days later and was stunned at how despondent they looked. He almost didn’t want to ask, but finally asked how the reunion was.

The minister told him it was one of the saddest experiences of his life.

When the friend asked what happened the minister quickly retorted that it wasn’t what had happened but what hadn’t happened. It had been 40 years and his class-mates hadn’t changed. They had simply gained weight, changed clothes, gotten jobs...but they hadn’t really changed. And what he felt was maybe one of the most tragic things I could ever imagine about life. For reasons he didn’t fully understand, it seemed as though many of them had chosen not to change.

On the drive home, the minister unburdened his heart to his friend. He asked him if he ever saw him becoming stagnant or “stuck in a rut” to give him a quick swift kick where he needed it because life is too precious and too important to grow stale and jaded. The minister added- “for Christ’s sake” I hope you’ll love me enough to challenge me to keep growing."

In most areas of life growth is automatic. We eat, sleep and -voila, we grow. Of course that doesn’t happen in the case of a child with FTT. Tragically there is no growth. But for the overwhelmingly majority of us growth just happens.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH ISN’T A GIVEN

In the area of spiritual growth, it doesn’t happen that way. In the realm of things spiritual, growth isn’t automatic. It doesn’t take place without plan and effort. It can be achieved only through conscious desire and diligent work.

As Christians our greatest desire should be to grow into the likeness of Christ but tragically many develop Spiritual FTT. Failure To Thrive-as a Christian. The problem is that we live in a secular age and often the sheer mass of secular, non-spiritual activities crowd out the deep longing of our hearts. Much of the time the desire is there but at other times it’s crowded out by the trivia of the day. We find ourselves striving for the same goals and in the same manner as non-Christians. We live in a materialistic, secular age and often the den of non-spiritual activities drowns out the things of the spirit.

IMMATURITY

Babies are cute and delightful in many ways. But if a person were to remain a baby for ten or twenty years, something would be terribly wrong. We would find in that baby something pitiful, something grotesque. Most all parents have remarked when their kids were being raised, “Look how quickly they’re growing. I wish I could keep them this age forever.” But if that child truly stopped growing and developing, as parents we’d pay any price and do any and all things in the realm of possibility to have that child to continue to grow and develop normally.

Now, in a literal, physical sense there are no twenty-year-old babies. But there are twenty-year-olds, forty-, sixty-year-olds who often act like babies. And what do we say about them? That they are cute and delightful? No! Think of a grown man coming to church with a flower in his lapel that squirts water at you. You mutter, “Joe, why don’t you grow up?” After a while, Joe might find himself without any friends, because people like that are unpleasant to say the least..

Immaturity is hard to tolerate. I’m afraid that God is similarly annoyed by some of us, for there’s a lot of spiritual immaturity among Christians today in the church. This is not always necessarily a bad thing — much of it results because of our evangelistic emphasis on winning souls. When new spiritual babies are being born you expect to have spiritual babies around.

But we’ve got to keep encouraging the young Christians to grow. And older Christians too, for we never outgrow the need to grow. We need to emphasize the basics of the gospel: salvation by the death and resurrection of Christ, by God’s grace. That’s imperative. But let nobody misunderstand: there’s a lot more to learn in God’s Word beside these basics. And it’s sad when someone who has been a Christian for a long time knows nothing else than the simple gospel.

Listen to Hebrews 6:1,

Let us go forward, then, to mature teaching and leave behind us the first lessons of the Christian message. We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works and believing in God…

It’s amazing how many older Christians there are who have to be nursed. People have to walk on egg-shells around them to keep from hurting their feelings. Then they’ll start whining if not howling and the church “wet nurse” has to carry them their “bottle.”

Instead of being spiritually strong men and women, they are mere babes and have to be cared for. Instead of being a workshop, the church becomes a nursery—a hospital. Paul said,

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things."

But many who profess to be mature believers are still playing with spiritual dolls.

Spiritual babes, instead of doing work, make work for others. The difference between a child and a man is that the man works and the child makes work for others. Too many churches of today are full of babies. You could put up a sign in front of the church that reads “Babyland.”They do not help; they hinder. Many have not learned to walk, but they have learned to talk. The preacher must spend much of his time cradle-rocking to keep them from whining. He has to feed them Pablum from the pulpit then rush to the back door to “burp” them before they leave.

Many Christians live with stunted growth. We weren’t made to be like the tiny ponies that will never grow any bigger or the twisted bonsai tree. Once in a while we see the little people, normal people in every way except they are dwarfs. Some Christians suffer from stunted growth! Like Peter Pan they never grow up. Many Christian men and women stop short! They grow older, yes, but long ago they ceased any inner development. They have had no fresh ideas for years. They have flowered in no new interests or understanding. They are spiritually dead wood. They sing “standing on the promises” but they’re just sitting on the premises. They are spiritually immature and often this is seen in their un-Christian attitudes or behavior. Growth in a human being is a matter of striving. By our own will and grit we can shake off lethargy, push through the hard crust of accustomed ideas, and reach into the light of greater wisdom.

WHAT DOES SPIRITUAL GROWTH LOOK LIKE?

First, let's look at what it’s not. It’s not becoming more saved than at the moment of conversion. It’s not becoming more forgiven than when converted. It’s not becoming more justified than at salvation.

Growing to maturity isn’t being sinless. Christians are sinners saved by grace, constantly being forgiven, but continually growing to maturity in Christ. Perfection will be completed in heaven when we shall be as He is. Perfection is completed only in eternity but here our personal best is our goal.

What Christian growth is , is learning about who God is and what He says to us through His Word. It’s being able to do more of what God wants. It is living more and more in the love of God.

Consider Bible evidences of growth in men. This growth resulted in change in,

Peter: From backsliding to blessing.
Paul: From the Damascus road to the Roman Road.
John: From the Son of Thunder to the disciple of love.

TWO FALSE CONCEPTS OF GROWTH

Like ditches on either side of the road, there are two “spiritual growth ditches” we can fall into. One ditch is the false concept that in order to grow, one must become more Radical and Legalistic. Therefore, any additional teachings that offer a stricter way are what God’s looking for in us. Teachings that offer a more permissive approach are avoided. This attitude isn’t descriptive of spiritual growth.

Please understand: The Bible clearly describes the Way of life as a narrow way (Matt. 7:13-14), -but not a way that is progressively becoming narrower and narrower. Satan will get behind us and push us so hard and fast that as time goes by we’ll become so narrow-minded that we can look through a key-hole with both eyes. This isn’t Christian growth.

The opposite point-of-view is-that growth manifests itself by becoming increasingly permissive. Thus, any teaching perceived as being burdensome-anything that’s “Jewish,” or from the Old Testament-is discarded in favor of the “new-found freedom” that Christ brought.

An honest reading of scripture however, does not support either approach. The biblical record shows that in the early Church, there was no deleting of or adding to the Truth that was given initially. Some changes were made [male circumcision was dropped as a requirement] to show how the Truth should be administered in the New Testament era, but the Truth itself was an unalterable, divinely revealed message. It was and still is the unchanging standard. Therefore, there was no need for it to become progressively stricter or more liberal. But sadly there will always be those who will get into the ditch on one side of the road or the other. If he can, Satan will “Freeze” us or “Fry” us.

The Bible emphasizes over and over again – do not add to or take away from the Truth. Don’t go to the right or to the left. Do not conservatize or liberalize. God wants balance, stability, and consistency, not vacillation with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). God doesn’t want us to go to extremes. Both the biblical and historical record clearly show that when any church organization begins to tamper with the revealed Truth, whether making it more restrictive or less restrictive, it is only a matter of time until that organization repudiates what it originally believed.

BIBLE EMPHASIS

Growth in grace is a constant emphasis of Peter’s: "Crave spiritual milk so that you might grow into the fullness of your salvation. It’s not difficult to understand why this might be his concern. Peter had let the Savior down. He knew what the consequences of immaturity were. He was eager that others be spared the pain it brought him so he wanted to see his fellow Christians growing-up.

Listen again to Peter…

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.—2 Peter 1:5-7

The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.


For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.-3 John

Listen to the writer of Hebrews chapter 5:12...

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.—Hebrews 5:1

“By this time you ought to be teachers….” -By this time.

How long have you been a Christian? 6 months? 6 years? 50 years?  How much growing have you done in that time? And where ought you to be by this time?

The writer to the Hebrews furnishes us with two important measuring devices…not length and weight but knowledge and behavior.

SPIRITUAL BOTTLE BABIES

The writer of Hebrews uses the picture of baby’s diet:  Are you still drinking milk, or have you been weaned to solid food? If you are a new Christian, of course, you need milk! Simple spiritual truth. By this time, says the Hebrews writer, you ought to be teaching others!

Is it any wonder that so few Christians have brought another person to Jesus Christ, and that we feel so ill-equipped to answer the questions or challenges others bring? Is it any wonder that when some moment of trial of serious crisis comes, we go to our spiritual wells and find that they have run dry. If you and I don’t grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, we dishonor Him who made our minds and calls us to use them!

Are you growing in knowledge? If so, I rejoice with you and urge you to continue!

Listen to Paul…

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;


For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:


Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:


That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ...Ephesians 4:11-15

The following are several proofs that we are making progress in our spiritual lives:

# If you are conscious that you are exercising more childlike and complete confidence in God, this indicates that you are growing in grace. As your life, attitude, and spirit manifests this ever-expanding faith in God, you demonstrate that you are growing in God.

# If you are weaned from the world and its temptations, you have grown in grace. A soul crucified to the world signals spiritual progress.

# Fewer feelings of reluctance when called to exercise self-denial reveals growth in grace. It shows that the soul is blending into harmony with the Will of God.

#Less temptation to sins of commission and omission is another sign of growth. Less temptation to shy away from unpleasant responsibilities, from prayer, Scripture reading, private and family devotions, displays growth.

#Deepening intensity and zeal for God’s causes reveals growth. Sometimes a Christian’s zeal cools, and at other times it warms; sometimes it is committed, at other times it is fickle and fleeting. As Christians grow in devotion, their zeal becomes deep, intense and steady.

# Christians sometimes cannot speak, pray or do anything in public without being either proud or self-condemning. As they lose sight of self and consistently work for God’s glory with spiritual confidence, they grow.

# Deadness to flattery or condemnation signals growth in grace. Paul counted it a small thing to be judged by others. He sought only to find God’s approval.

# A growing graciousness in all things denotes Christian growth.

# Calmness in hardship evidences growth. It shows that the soul is firmly anchored in Christ, more able to withstand the storms of life.

# Christian growth is manifesting when there’s tranquility in the face of sudden, crushing disasters and losses.

# Patience under provocation and less temptation to worry speak of growth in grace.

# When you find that you not only tolerate but accept God’s will when it calls you to suffer, when you can endure patiently and joyfully, this shows you are growing in God.

# An increasing deadness to all the things that the world offers and to all its threats denotes growth in grace.

# Dwelling less on other’s faults and shortcomings and having the ability to “sweep around our own door” first, and becoming more focused on biblical solutions to problems is a heartening sign of growth in God.

# Speech that is gentle rather than sarcastic, uncharitable or severe. A growing sensitivity and tenderness in speaking of and relating to others is a healthy sign of growth.

# An increasing reluctance to think of or treat anyone as an enemy, and an increasing ease in treating people kindly, praying for them earnestly and working to do them good.

# An ability to forgive rather than hold grudges, and a lack of desire to retaliate for injuries.

# Conformity to God and growth in His grace is clearly displayed by a growing jealousy for God’s honor, and for the church’s purity in a corrupt world.

#Doing things less by feelings and more because it’s the right thing to do.”

#Greater humility.-James 4:10-1 Peter5:5,6


QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES
Are our thoughts and motivations moving beyond worldly interests?

Are we moving beyond wanting everyone's approval?

Are we moving beyond having to be asked to serve the Lord?

Are we moving beyond the fear of life, death and eternity?

Are we sharing our faith as the Holy Spirit leads?

Are we adding Diligence and Faith to our life?

Are we adding Virtue?

Are we adding Knowledge?

Are we adding Temperance?

Are adding Patience?

Are adding Godliness?

Are we adding Brotherly Kindness?

Are we adding Love?


If God had grades within the Christian life, what grade would you be in? What if our schools turned out as many [or few] graduates as the Church does?

When our ancient fore parents began to sail they could sail only in the direction that the wind was blowing. If the wind was blowing where they didn't want to go, too bad. Either they took the sail down and drifted or they put the sail up and were blown off course. As people became more sophisticated sailors, however, they learned how to sail across the wind, even how to sail against the wind. Regardless of where the wind was blowing now, they could use the wind -- any wind -- to go where they were supposed to go. As the old axiom says, “It’s not the direction of the wind, but the set of the sails.”

It’s is a mark of Christian maturity that we can advance, go where we are supposed to be going, regardless of the most contrary winds that are blowing around us. Only the mature can do this!

Which gives us a choice doesn’t it? We can come together to encourage one another, to love one another, to support one another and to teach one another and so form this spiritual family which is God’s will for our life.

Or we can try and be lone ranger Christians and attempt to do it on our own. We can embrace our fellow believers, take them by the hand and open our heart to them. Or, we can exclude them, with the risk that we may grow cold and distant and our faith may experience-

Failure To Thrive.


Blessings,


John