Of age

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

When you are a child, there are childish things which you do that befits that age. When you grow, mature, and become of age,  there are things you outgrow and start doing things only mature ones do. 

One mark of maturity is to take on more and more responsibility.  Mature people want to do things that matter. They want to make a difference.  They rally behind a cause so passionately and mobilise others with their resources or other people's resources to join them. Many men that God has used mightily have that point when the childishness is done, and all they want to do is to pull the thumb out of their mouths and act right. Mature people sense maturity in others and desire to flow with them. If there are people desirous of soul winning in the church, those are the ones they want to flow with. They avoid those who simply look on and wait for things to change. Rather, they are the game changers. They are agents of change. They, in fact, initiate change.

Mature Christians don't wait to be called upon to do something. Rather, they anticipate what needs to be done and do it. They own the vision. They run with it with all their might. A mark of maturity is when one who was on the receiving end switches position to be of the giving end. They now desire to teach others and help them grow in the things of God. 

Children do not give birth even when they will someday.  Those who are of age do. Underage children who give birth cannot really parent when they do not have the means to take care of the baby.  Mature ones, on the other hand, know for a fact that each child comes with responsibility. And they own up such responsibility.  Christians get people saved, and some don't bother to follow up to see that the saved person gets a church and starts to get fed. They think God will do it, not knowing that God uses people and they are the first He counts on. 

Do you consider yourself mature as a believer? Have you given birth to any spiritual children this year? How many feed off your teaching so that they grow in the Lord? How much responsibility do you carry in the body of Christ? Christian maturity is not about how many years you have spent in salvation but the amount of responsibility you carry in the body of Christ.

Further scriptures 

Hebrews 5:12-14 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which [be] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk [is] unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.