Why You Shouldn't Focus on growing UP?

While scrolling through Instagram a few days ago, I saw a post that said, ‘Grow Up.’ Though it was very cute, creative, and had plenty of likes, I started thinking about the pressure society places on us to grow…UP. From the day we’re born our lives and even our physical bodies are navigated in the direction of independence. Do you remember those "I'm A Big Kid Now," commercials? Though balanced with some dependence on our family, our prepubescent years are then filled with lessons on how to be mature, with hopes that we would someday be responsible adults; but, what if the focus of our lives isn’t centrally about growing up….

As I looked at that post, God revealed something to my heart: ‘don’t grow UP, grow DEEP!’ He reminded me that growing UP is marked by independence, where as, growing DEEP is marked by dependence; dependence on Him. In essence, growing deep in our dependence on God is the root of our spiritual maturity. It is when we are planted deeply in Him that we receive all the nutrients required for us as spiritual beings,  bear much fruit (John 15:5), and our leaves do no wither (Psalm 1:3). 

Now isn’t it funny, society is forcing us to grow up, all the while God is saying be child-like, depend on me in your faith. As we grow deeper in God, we take on more of His nature, power, and love. And like God, we become unstoppable because we are planted deeply in the Unstoppable God. Now this my friend is your answer. This is why we shouldn’t focus so much on growing up or being independent of our Father. 

We should depend heavily on His Presence and His Grace to make decisions and fulfill our purpose. I believe that as we cast our nets out into the deep (Luke 5:4) and receive God with child-like simplicity we will fully receive everything we need to live this life. So why physical growth is inevitable, spiritually speaking, the question is not whether you will grow. Rather, it is whether you will grew deep?