Tag: Bible verses about growing and maturing as a believer

1 Peter 4:1-2 (LSB) 1 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose—because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin— 2 so as to no longer live the rest of the time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

These are truly interesting words penned by Peter.

Let’s dig into them to better understand what he was referring to.

His initial few words refer to Christ suffering in the flesh; literal wounds to His body.

But he then turns this to believers, urging us to arm ourselves with the same purpose.

This is not implying that we should intentionally seek opportunities to subject ourselves to physical harm just for the sake of suffering.

Peter is referring to a level of maturity whereby which we would accept physical suffering for the sake or the cause of Christ.

He is not implying that suffering itself purifies us. Rather, when our willingness to endure suffering for Christ outweighs our desire to satisfy the flesh, it reveals that we are no longer living to pursue our fleshly desires.

Our willingness to suffer shows that obedience to God matters more to us than comfort and pleasure.

Physically suffering for the One who died to pay for our sins helps us recognize the futility of fleshly pursuits; chasing after fruitless endeavors, lusting after people and things.

We realize that these things are, as Solomon so aptly stated, chasing after the wind; empty and in vain.

When we reach a point in our lives where we are willing to suffer for Christ, it shows maturity and the fact that our will is aligned with God’s will.

We have come to understand the Biblical concept of being bought at a price, and being willing to stand up for our faith, even if it means suffering for doing so.

The pleasures of the flesh become meaningless to us.

When we stand for our faith, we may lose social standing or become the subject of mocking and ridicule. Or we may experience being mistreated in various ways aside from physical affliction or harm.

These losses only confirm that our desires have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, no longer determined to please ourselves, but the One who shed His blood for us.

But Jesus prepared us well ahead of time to face such things when He spoke these words.

John 16:33 (LSB) 33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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2 Peter 1:3 (NLT) 3 By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.

As children of God, He has equipped each of us with everything we need to live godly lives.

He shows no partiality (Romans 2:11), so we were each given the same measure. No one is underequipped.

We are without excuse if we choose to make poor moral choices.

The verse above states plainly that we receive this (the ability and strength to make good moral choices) by coming to know Him.

Therefore, if we lack proper judgment and moral fortitude, it can be concluded that we have failed to get to know Him.

And check out what verse 4 tells us.

2 Peter 1:4 (NLT) 4 And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

By His promises, we share His divine nature! He has sown into us what is needed for us to walk upright and just before Him.

Verse 5 tells us that, because of all this (God’s promises and provision), we are to “supplement our faith with a generous provision of moral excellence”.

Moral excellence!

Peter is very outspoken with what he is sharing and implying. But let’s read further!

In verse 8, he begins to summarize it all.

2 Peter 1:8 (NLT) 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are we productive and useful in our knowledge of Jesus Christ?

And in verse 9, he drives it all home.

2 Peter 1:9 (NLT) 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

Are we blind? Or are we shortsighted, forgetting that we have been cleansed from our old sins?

This group of verses gives us all much food for thought; deep reasons to ponder our relationship with God and our growth and maturity as a believer.

May we sincerely and fervently seek God in these matters, asking Him to reveal our hearts to us.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus 😊 

Did you know that the Bible teaches us about moral excellence? 

Did you also know that it teaches us about being “useful to the kingdom of God”? 

It teaches both of these very important things! 

And our new video, The Truth About Moral Excellence, also teaches about it. 

In this new video, we discuss moral excellence, what it means, and what the word of God says about it for each of us. 

We hope this video will inspire you and encourage you. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

We love you all. And we hope you have a great rest of your day. 

Sincerely, 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443  

401-439-3780 

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Romans 6:1-3 (LSB) 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Welcome back!

Yesterday we established the fact that maturing in Christ requires a sacrifice and surrender on our part.

Today, we will dive even deeper, discussing the kind of transformation that takes place as we further submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit and surrender to His will in our lives.

As we start this section, I’d like to interject with a personal note to testify as to the many changes God made in my own life as I learned of Him and my love for Him began to grow and flourish.

As a young boy, I knew little or nothing about God, except for the possibility that He existed, and that if He did exist, He had a son whose name was Jesus.

That was the full extent of my knowledge of God.

But after taking Him up on His offer to redeem me and make me one of His own (at the age of 20), I began to develop a hunger and thirst to know Him; to learn more about Him than I ever knew was possible.

And it was in learning of Him, and beginning to understand some of His ways, that I began to allow Him to change me. I underwent a transformation that still boggles my mind to this day.

It was not a work of my own doing—it was a Holy Spirit–led metamorphosis that made me unrecognizable, even to myself.

My foul language disappeared. My temperament changed drastically. The things I watched and listened to took a 180-degree turn. God was stripping away all that I had been and filling those emptied places with more of Himself and His ways.

I share this not to bring attention to myself or give myself any credit for this.

Yes, I had to put forth the effort and learn to obey His voice. But the Holy Spirit was faithful to be there and guide me every step of the way.

These changes do not earn our way into His heart. He already loves us.

But when we heed His instruction and begin to conform to the ways of righteous living, it brings about changes that go far beyond just the way we talk or behave.

These changes represent a deeper transformation; a replacement of our stone, selfish, hardened heart with a heart of flesh.

It is a heart that no longer beats solely for our own selfish wants and desires; a heart that now beats for Him, and longs to please Him in every way possible.

If you are in a place where you have claimed the banner of Christianity, but you have not seen your life change, or you feel like you have not submitted yourself under God’s hand, I invite you to surrender to Him today and let Him do a good work in you.

It is never too late. Let today be that day when you step across the line and give Him your whole self.

Amen 🙏

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Luke 9:23 (LSB) 23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

As we left off yesterday, we were discussing the fact that God asks that we let our lives be walked out as living sacrifices to Him (Romans 12:1), which He deems as a reasonable act of spiritual worship.

Today, let’s go deeper, so we can develop an understanding of what that means for us in our daily lives.

People don’t often think of Jesus speaking or teaching about growing or maturing as a believer. But He did speak on this topic, albeit in less obvious ways.

In the verse above (Luke 9:23), Jesus directly addressed what is required if someone wishes to follow Him.

It’s important to note that following Him implies making Him your highest priority, being willing to sacrifice or surrender your own will to walk out His purpose.

Jesus didn’t dance around what was required; deny yourself, and be willing to take up your cross daily.

That’s bigger than most people realize. It requires a complete surrender on our part. And it involves learning about what God desires and requires of us.

That part right there can sometimes be a bit tougher than we may care to admit.

You see, when we accept the offer to become His child, we are making a choice that has lifelong consequences.

We are telling God that if He redeems us, we will attach ourselves to Him unconditionally.

Wow! What a commitment that is. And most of us have no idea at all what that really means at the onset.

But as we learn of Him, we begin to understand who He really is, and we begin to love Him more, our heart goes through a process of surrendering that is a result of the transformation He is walking us through.

And in that surrender, we will find peace and a kind of rest that we never knew existed or thought possible to walk in.

Matthew 11:29 (LSB) 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Please join us tomorrow for more 🙏

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (LSB) 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

One of the critical pieces of our salvation (redemption through the blood of Christ being applied on a personal basis) is understanding that His blood makes us a new creation.

He doesn’t just slap a band-aid on our wounds. He doesn’t just hose off our dirt and put clean clothes on us.

He thoroughly cleanses us by His holy, pure, perfect blood, which makes us new.

It is that newness that we must recognize and embrace if we are to fulfill His purpose for our lives.

Once we understand this, it will change everything about our lives, and it will forever alter our life’s path.

Now, part of us learning to recognize the importance of this lies in knowing the price that was paid for our redemption, and what is expected of us as blood-bought children of God.

Our salvation came at a price for the One who offered Himself for it.

God’s word is explicitly clear that since we were bought at a price, we must also offer ourselves to Him, glorifying Him in all that we do, both physically and spiritually.

1 Corinthians 6:20 (NKJV) 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

And yes, this requires a sacrifice on our part. It requires that we put God first in everything we do in deference to the One who died in our place to make us pure and holy in God’s sight.

The word of God refers to this as becoming a living sacrifice.

Romans 12:1 (LSB) 12 Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

We should grow to understand that what God asks of us is not unreasonable. In fact, it is a minimal request on His part in light of what we have been offered through His plan of redemption.

Let’s dive deeper into this topic tomorrow.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (LSB) 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If we were to honestly and openly study the New Testament, we would clearly see that a majority of what was written in these 27 books is intended to teach and exhort the body of Christ to grow and mature as believers.

It instructs us on the topics of repentance (turning away from sin), redemption (forgiveness of sin), deliverance (being set free from sin), and living righteously (glorifying God and representing Him accurately) as we live our lives here on earth.

And, if we are to be one hundred percent honest, we must admit that being a child of God without growing and maturing is not scripturally accurate.

Yes, that may hurt or irritate some who hear it. But it is the truth, straight from God’s word.

Growth is implied when someone becomes a follower of Christ. It was never meant to be optional.

Paul taught it. James taught it. Jesus taught it.

And we must all embrace this truth, even when it may be uncomfortable to do so.

With our confession of faith in Christ, there must also be a turning from our sinful ways.

This does not buy our redemption. It proves it.

Yes, the proof of our faith in Christ as our redeemer should be evident in our lives and the way we walk them out.

Over the next few days, we will look at this topic a little more in depth, so we can establish this as truth and understand it better.

We hope that these next few devotionals will be beneficial in that they will strengthen you, exhort you, encourage you, and instill in each of you new understanding, a newfound love for God and a life that accurately reflects His holiness.

We hope you will join us on this journey of discovery and understanding.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page.