Grow Up...Clean Out ALL The Skeletons

1 Peter 2:3-5 - Now that you realize how kind the Lord has been to you, put away all evil, deception, envy, and fraud. Long to grow up into the fullness of your salvation; cry for this as a baby cries for his milk.  Come to Christ, who is the living Foundation of Rock upon which God builds; though men have spurned him, he is very precious to God who has chosen him above all others. And now you have become living building-stones for God’s use in building his house. What’s more, you are his holy priests; so come to him—you who are acceptable to him because of Jesus Christ—and offer to God those things that please him.

Peter wastes no time telling us to grow up.  We have been taught…God gave us the Holy Spirit to tell us right from wrong….it is time to let go of everything that keeps us from understanding and experiencing God’s full salvation. He even tells us why…we are supposed to be his building stones…winning others to God…..not still in the nursery having others take care of us.

I have to admit that I am NOT grown up when I read this.  Sure ..I could justify some growth and use as a building stone by citing any number of ministries I am involved in….and the time I spend in study and prayer. BUT…here’s what God wanted me to realize when he let Peter write this powerful insight…I sure don’t long to grow up…I fight it all the way.  And I sure don’t cry for it like a baby cries for its milk. It does not consume me enough to stop justifying everything I still hold on too that keeps me a child in God’s eyes.

Verse 9-10 tell us how to start the process of growing up again if we have stalled for a while. It says…. “ But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own. Once you knew very little of God’s kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it.”

I need to commit to a little less justification…and do some spiritual cleaning. I need to let the transformations that God has made in my life power me to finish cleaning ALL the skeletons out of my closet that hold me back from that full experience of salvation Peter was experiencing…and wanted for all the believers he taught about Christ.

Father…thank you once again for waking me to a deeper knowledge of who you are and how you can transform my hearty and life to be your vessel. Forgive me for stalling in the process of cleaning out the rest of the things that hold me back from experiencing who you fully are. Teach me to be a solid building stone…that will help you build a church that can withstand the persecution and trials that are ahead. Amen.