Length: 4 minutes

“One day, we feel solid on what the Lord’s speaking to us, rejoicing in the gospel, and the next day we’re moved from the good news at the first sign of adversity!” This doesn’t have to be the story of your life, because there’s a simple explanation for this.

Of course, first and foremost, we need to make sure we understand the real gospel. Sometimes our emotions feel crazy because the gospel we think we have is not the gospel at all (it’s not centered on Jesus and what He’s done). As long as you’re hearing the right gospel, here is the Bible’s explanation for why your mind may feel up-and-down, or back-and-forth at times. 

Ephesians 4:13-14 (NKJV) till we all come to… the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man… that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men…

You know what these verses are basically saying? If you feel quickly moved away from the good news, it’s not that you don’t have the truth. It’s a maturity issue. We may know certain things about the Lord, but it’s maturity in these things that keeps us from being moved away so easily. You simply need further growth. 

If you read that scripture again, it says we get tossed to and fro by unbelief because we are “children” in the knowledge of Jesus. That means that we are immature, at least in certain areas. It says that when we become a “perfect man” (or mature in knowledge) we won’t be tossed to and fro so easily! The more mature you are in a particular truth, the less likely you are to be moved away from it.

For instance, you may have accepted the truth that “by Jesus stripes you were healed” but at the first sign of sickness in your own body or someone else’s, you immediately are discouraged or fearful. It’s not that you don’t have the truth. You do! But you need further maturity in that truth, so that you are not moved at the first sign of testing!

The question is, “How do you mature in a given truth?” One word — Meditation. That means thinking about it. You may go to church, you may read your Bible, and that is all excellent, but you will never reach full maturity without you spending time just musing and rolling the truth over in your heart. It takes a moment for God to speak something to you, but it takes a lot longer to mature in it! That maturity comes through meditation.

Hebrews 5:14 (NKJV) But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews says it is through “use” that we have our mind trained to discern what is right or wrong, true or untrue. If you want your mind (or your senses) to be trained and matured, then you need time meditating and pondering the truths God has spoken to you. That’s how you use the truth! 

Many people hear many truths, but most don’t “use the truth” that has been planted in their head! That is why most Christians don’t mature much in the truth they have. They haven’t used it! They haven’t exposed their heart to it much.

In terms of the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4), you might say you need to, “Keep the seed in the ground.” In that parable, the word of God is called a seed that is planted in people’s minds. Out of four people, only the last person let the word of God grow in their heart to full maturity! What did they do to get this maturity? Nothing special. Nothing fancy. They just kept the seed (the word) and didn’t let it go. Unlike the others, they didn’t start meditating on the cares of this life or other people’s opinion. They just kept meditating on the word (the seed) and that did the trick. And that will do the trick for you as well! 

That’s how you mature. It may happen so steadily that you don’t even realize it, but it is surely happening when you devote your mind to thinking on the truth!

So, if you feel easily moved at the first sign of adversity, if things feel very back-and-forth, there’s no other advice the Lord would give you except to consistently grow in that same good news you’ve heard! Keep the word of God in there! There’s nothing more than that. You’ll find that, although we all need to make course corrections as we grow, the roller coaster feeling turns into steadiness (Psalms 112:7). It feels far less up-and-down, back-and-forth. Being tossed back-and-forth becomes more the exception, rather than the rule. All of this, as we continue to grow and meditate in the good word we began with.

If this article blessed you, share this with someone else!