Be Honest With Yourself

One area where I have struggled in my writing on this blog is properly explaining what a mature Christian looks like. I don’t think I provide a very clear picture of the goal of wisdom and maturity.

In one of our sessions in Wichita, Keith Matthews went through what he called The Super Seven. This was a questionnaire to gauge “the habituated actions and attitudes reflected in my daily living.” We were to rate our level of maturity (1-10) in the following areas:

Confidence and Faith in God in all things

Our life witness as a fact (not words)

A confident and expectant prayer life

Being a conduit of God’s power

Freedom from worry, anxiety, and fear

Mercy and compassion for those in pain or suffering injustice

Participation and service to the body of Christ

Forget our tendency with things like this to nitpick and talk about what should be on the list and how our own pet doctrine isn’t fully represented. And just honestly work through each item on the questionnaire and reflect on your own level of maturity in that area.

Where do you need work? Or, maybe a better question is what area have you become prideful in your level of maturity? Could that pride be preventing you from growing in other areas?

For me, my prideful area is probably the last one, “Participation and service to the body of Christ.” I sometimes like to look down my nose at other’s unwillingness to serve in church and pat myself on the back for the things I do among the body of Christ. But I am woefully deficient in areas such as having a “confident and expectant prayer life” and “freedom from worry, anxiety, and fear.”

If we are not willing to stretch ourselves and be challenged then true growth will never happen. I think of Peter, who was willing to wield a sword in the name of Jesus but wouldn’t acknowledge Christ to a little girl. He was willing to serve Christ but lacked confidence in God in all things.

Take a look at this inventory and be honest with yourself. Where do you need work? What are you going to do to work towards growth?

May we all make that effort today and see what Christ does with it.