Choose Maturity: How God Prepares You While You Are Waiting

What you are praying for may not be the only thing God is preparing. In this message, discover how God uses waiting seasons to develop maturity, strengthen character, deepen discernment, and enlarge your capacity. Drawing from Hebrews 6:1, James 1:2–4, and Exodus 14:15–16, this episode encourages you to stop resisting the process and move forward.

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What you are waiting for may not be the only thing God is preparing. While you are asking God to bring you the promise, God may be working within you, shaping your character, sharpening your discernment, and enlarging your capacity to carry what you have requested. Good morning and welcome to this expression of igniting your day. One reason why what you are believing God for may not yet have appeared is that God is working on you in preparation for it. God is shaping and sharpening you for what lies ahead. David was anointed to be king, but he did not immediately sit upon the throne. His years in the wilderness taught him courage, restraint, leadership, dependence on God, and how to handle power without abusing it. One word describes what God was developing in David. Maturity. God does not want you to receive what you prayed for only to lose it, misuse it, or be destroyed by it because you were not mature enough to handle it. Maturity enables you to remain restrained, gracious, and responsible even when people misunderstand you while you occupy a privileged position. Therefore, do not refuse the opportunity to mature. There is something valuable about the season you are presently in that you may not yet recognize. It is better to be corrected now while you are still in a hidden place. By the time what you are believing God for arrives, you may no longer have the privilege of making certain corrections without other people noticing. Use this season to appreciate the experiences God is allowing along your journey towards maturity. No one said the process will be convenient, but it will be worth it. We cannot deny the pain. We cannot deny the costly commitment, the loneliness that sometimes accompanies obedience or the difficulty of responding to people who believe you are wasting your time. Yet we know that the waiting will be worth it. Romans chapter 8, verse 18 expresses this hope. It says, For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Your present experience is not the final expression of your life. God can use what is painful today to prepare you for what will become visible tomorrow. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1 says, Therefore, living the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection. In this passage, perfection refers to maturity or completeness. Although the immediate context is spiritual maturity, the principle is also relevant to the way we respond to God's developmental processes. Refuse to remain stagnant. Refuse to remain stagnant. Refuse to remain stagnant. You may not fully understand what is happening, but choose to continue moving forward in maturity. Do not allow confusion to stop your development. Do not allow disappointment to make you resist what God is trying to teach you. Do not allow an uncomfortable season to persuade you that nothing meaningful is happening. God may be doing some of his deepest work in you during a season that appears unproductive on the outside. James chapter 1, verse 2 to 4 says, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Friends, there is a maturity and completeness that await you when you remain committed to the process. Notice the instruction let patience complete its work. That means patience can be resisted. The process can be abandoned. A person can become so focused on escaping discomfort that they miss what God intended to develop through it. Choose maturity, my brother. Choose maturity, my sister. Do not resist the process God is using to strengthen your character. Do not resist the process God is using to deepen your discernment. Do not resist the process God is using to enlarge your capacity. Maturity prepares you to carry privilege responsibly. Maturity prepares you to endure misunderstanding graciously. Maturity prepares you to handle power without abusing it. Exodus chapter 14, verse 15 to 16. The Bible says there, and the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward, but lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and divide it. Some of us have cried to God and are still crying to him, but there are moments when God's response to your crying is an instruction. Go forward. Go forward. Go forward. The Lord told Moses, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. And in the same way, I say this morning, John, go forward. Jane, go forward. Simon, go forward. Cecilia, go forward. Tell the children of Israel to go forward. I go forward in maturity. Let this be your quiet resolve. I go forward. I may not like everything I have seen. I may wish certain things had turned out differently, but I choose to go forward. This may not be what I prayed for. This may not be the outcome I desired, but I choose to go forward. I may not remain trapped in regret. Yes, I will, I will, I will not remain trapped in regret. I will not build a home inside disappointment. I will not allow pain to stop my progress. I march forward towards maturity. Perhaps even the pain and challenges you have faced in your research, your career, your family, your ministry or relationships are being used to build something within you. You may not yet understand everything, but you can resolve it. I go forward. For someone, this word relates specifically to what is happening in your office. You've observed decisions being made and documents flying from one person to another. You have looked at what is happening around you and asked yourself more than once, are we not better than this? Are we not capable of more than this? Yet it appears that some of your colleagues will rather remain where they are. The environment feels like a quagmire, something that continually pulls people back into stagnation. The word of Allah to you is simple. Go forward. Do not allow the unwillingness of others to grow, to become the reason you stop progressing. Do not allow a stagnant environment to produce a stagnant spirit within you. Go forward. Your reward is in front of you. It is not behind you. It is not inside the disappointment. It is not inside the pity patty. Your reward is in front of you. Keep moving, keep growing, keep allowing God to shape you. Keep choosing maturity. Yes, we will not remain trapped by what did not happen. We will not be defined by painful outcomes. We will not abandon the process. We choose growth. We choose obedience. We choose maturity. We go forward because our reward is in front of us. In Jesus' name. Amen. My dear friends, thank you for being here today. I wish you once again an amazing day ahead. God bless you.