What is it to become a child of God? It is to become more Christ-like, to grow and become more like God, our Father. We would talk and think like Him. If we truly believe in God as our Lord and Saviour, we acknowledge that we are sinners and need Jesus to save us, and that is when we receive Jesus Christ in our heart. As a baby, we crave spiritual milk, as Paul exhorts us in 1 Peter 2:2-3. We may not have matured as a Christian. Yet, when we feed on God’s Word, we grow in maturity. We establish our relationship with Jesus Christ. Couples who have been married for several years, grow to behave like each other, even talk and look like their spouses. This is likewise for Christians, as we grow in Christian maturity, we begin to be like Christ.

Then, what is it to mature as a Christian? We require a daily walk with God. We grow to love God and others a little bit more, day by day.

Jesus himself said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. He said in Mark 12:29-31, ““The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.””

To grow in love for God, requires that we spend time with Him. It may be in our daily quiet time, reading His Word, praying to Him for ourselves and for others. This causes us to draw near to Him, and open ourselves to Him. In trusting Him more each day, Jesus promises that He and His Father will come to you and make their home with you. In John 14:23 “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

He will transform us so that we naturally stay away from sin, and conform to His Will, as Paul instructs in Rom. 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We will begin to manifest the fruit of the Spirit, which as is written in Gal. 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

The Fruit of the Spirit is not to be confused with spiritual gifts. It indicates our attitude towards exercising the God given spiritual gifts given to each believer. It is imperative, therefore, that we have a right attitude towards God and His service as God looks at the heart of man.

If we commit the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 to memory, over time, it will be ingrained with our character, so that we show the the fruit of the Spirit naturally.

Then there are other godly character qualities which we can adopt – not telling lies, to building up and not tearing down with our tongues, to being gentle and not malicious, just to name a few. In Ephesians 4:32, it also exhorts us “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Let us depend on God to grant us that unction from on high, to grow in spiritual maturity. We will then be transformed and be more Christ-like, helping not just ourselves but also others, and inspire them to Christian maturity. In growing, we will do the will of God, and receive that which he has promised. Let us then claim on the promise in Hebrews 10:36 – “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.”!