1 Samuel 3:19 So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. (NKJV)

Last evening I was talking to a young believer. He was full of energy and a serving heart. He was all pumped up to do something for the body of Christ. However, he was lost how he should spiritually mature? How much time he should spend reading the Word, what is the best time to pray, etc.? Is there a tried and tested formula?

Many times we do right things for wrong reasons. While reading the Word and praying are a must to grow spiritually, but what is the motive? Do you read the Bible because you have to or because you love God and want to know Him more? Do you pray because you are told to or do you want to talk to your Heavenly Father? I know some people who put an alarm to get up at 4am and pray because they have heard that that is a good time to pray. So they do the prayer duty for 2 minutes and go back to sleep.

One of the more important keys to maturity, in my view, is submission. Total obedience.

Obedience is to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions while submission is to give over or yield to the power or authority of another.

Submission and obedience both assume that there are appropriate responses to a person in authority but they are not the same kind of response. Submission is a voluntary thing. You cannot make another person submit. You can make people obey you, but that doesn’t mean they’ve submitted. Their attitude is totally a matter of their choice.

Submission requires love, respect and the willingness to yield to another. So submission is a willful obedience. As we surrender our will to His command we grow in our maturity and authority. “…yet not my will, but yours be done.” Spiritual maturity is a process of becoming more like Jesus – our role model. It is a continuous process with an aim to not letting even one word fall to the ground. Being effective and fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus is the essence of spiritual maturity.