Becoming Mature and Complete
Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage, Guest Writer
Today’s Treasure
On the first day of August, I had jotted a note in my prayer journal under our son’s name: “humility and gratitude.” It’s not that he isn’t generally a humble and grateful twenty-two-year-old—but really, what twenty-two-year-old couldn’t stand to grow in this area? Or what fifty-two-year-old couldn’t grow a little more, for that matter?
This practice was nothing new; it’s what I do. I anticipate or observe character issues in my children, and I begin asking God to work on it. But when our son was diagnosed with a brain tumor two days later, I wanted to take my prayer back. I prayed something like this:
“In the first place, God, I didn’t want him to have to suffer to gain this humility and gratitude. In the second place, God, I didn’t want to have to suffer in order for my son to grow more mature. In the third place, I didn’t really mean that prayer.”
But God firmly showed me that there were no “take-backs” on this prayer; furthermore, perhaps there were some areas of my character that could benefit from such a trial. God wasn’t content to let me remain unchanged. Instead, he was committed to my sanctification.
Sanctification is a big theological word that refers to the process by which God makes his children more like their Savior Jesus: more holy, more mature, more complete. Of the many lessons Scripture teaches about sanctification, two lessons in particular apply here:
God saves us with the purpose of making us more like his Son.
Whether we like it or not, God often uses suffering to help us grow and mature.
I am a feeble and sinful parent, but I still scribbled a prayer in my journal because I wanted our son to be mature and complete, lacking nothing. God did not scribble when he engraved my name into his hand. He nailed his Son to the cross and wrote my name with Jesus’ blood. Such are the lengths to which our faithful Father has gone to make us, His precious children, mature and complete, lacking nothing.
Prayer
Heavenly and faithful Father, we praise You for being the best Father. Please use this season of affliction in our lives to grow proven character in us. May this proven character, in turn, help us to hope as we wait, and may this hope not be disappointed, but find its fulfillment as we become more like You.
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LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Read Romans 5:3-5; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12.
For Reflection: Have you ever prayed a prayer you wanted to “take back”? How did God answer that prayer?
©2019 Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage. Please do not reprint without permission from the author.
Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.
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