What comes after Christmas?
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him (Luke 2:40, KJV)
What comes after Christmas day? In the UK and many other countries, the 26th of December is called Boxing Day. I learned some European nations celebrate it as a second Christmas! I remember as a kid, Boxing day was a special day to revisit all the leftovers of Christmas! I can only imagine your own stories! Many fun things follow Christmas, the celebration, but the question today is, what followed the first Christmas, the day the Child Jesus was born?
Luke gives us the answer in Luke 2:40 above:
“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40, KJV).
Jesus grew, became strong in spirit and was filled with wisdom. He increased physical and spiritually. Luke 2:40 was not applicable to Jesus just because He was God in the flesh. It is fully applicable to you. God has ordained that from the day you were born into the Kingdom of God, there should be steady spiritual growth, increasing in the wisdom, power, and other qualities of the Spirit until Christ completely fills your entire being. Did the amount of power or wisdom in your life change from January this year to this month of December? If yes, even if it is a little bit, then you are growing spiritually. If you are still the same today as you were spiritually in January of this year, then you are stagnant in your spiritual life. The same principle is applicable to joy, love, peace or even finances, health etc.! Grow, and become strong in spirit continually and increase in wisdom, power, and love!
MEDITATE
Did Jesus have to grow spiritually? What would you say is your state of spiritual growth? Are you growing, stagnant or diminishing?
APPLY THE WORD
The Lord told me He has given me the grace to build His Church. If there is one goal of every devotional, article, Bible study or any other activity in our ministry, it is so that you will grow to the fullness of Christ and the glorious life He has for you.This is why I do not write to entertain you, tell stories or share things out of my mind to excite you. The Lord is looking for spiritual maturity. Please ensure you are on a positive growth balance and not just being Christianized in Church yet untransformed. I have shared many articles on what you need to do to see your life transformed daily. You can see samples here on “spiritual transformation” https://patrickoben.com/tag/spiritual-transformation/
PRAY
Ask the Father to help you by the Spirit to be on a path of constant spiritual growth and increase, moving from one degree of glory to another until the fullness of Christ is formed in you.
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