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Happiness, Lesson 2
Where is your happy place? Would you be happy to spend the next year of your life sitting in your happy place, be it on the shore or in the mountains, doing absolutely nothing for that entire year? When life has gotten way too busy, it’s easy to imagine that a year like that would indeed make you very happy. But nothing could be further from the truth. Paul found his happy place in a cold Roman prison cell. How can this be?
“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice” (Philippians 2:12-18).
Having nothing to do can become a curse rather than a blessing. Paul was forced by a Roman chain to sit still. Surely that was frustrating, but even there, he had something to do. God graciously provided parchment and ink in order for Paul to write letters to churches, in places like Philippi. But I suspect that even if Paul didn’t have that to do, he would have lived his prison days with a sense of purpose. He would have regimented his prayer life, praying through lists in his mind of everyone he could remember. He would have recited Scripture in his brain, refreshing his memory verses. He would have occupied himself in sharing the gospel with every guard or fellow prisoner within earshot. And he would have been rejoicing in the same way as described in Philippians 2:18.
“Yes, and I will rejoice,” says Paul. And we have access to the same joy. We can also say, “Yes, and I will rejoice.”
Paul’s happy place was not a place of earthly comfort, but a place of gospel purpose. There are few things as soul crushing as having no purpose in life. When life feels way too busy, it’s easy to imagine a life with nothing to do as being so much better. But God built us with a need for purpose. Paul found the purpose of life, and his single-minded pursuit of that purpose had one inevitable result—happiness.
Paul saw everything through the lens of gospel purpose. When a chain had him stuck, he saw the courage it would inspire in fellow believers. When pretenders tried to stir up trouble for him by preaching the gospel, he saw the value in the message of the gospel going out, even if it be from insincere lips. Since his purpose was the advancement of the gospel, he was able to find joy wherever he saw progress.
And here is the great hope for our joy. No matter how dark the culture becomes, the gospel will keep on winning souls. There will always be a remnant saved by grace (Romans 11:5). The gates of hell will not be able to resist the Church in her mission (Matthew 16:18). We will always see that we are taking ground somewhere. So, we’ll always have something in which to rejoice.
Praise God, the fruit is abundant where God has us now. Have you noticed that we’ve been baptizing dozens every year? Have you noticed that new members are added to our congregation every congregational meeting? Have you noticed that ministries are proliferating, even reaching far away places like Malawi? Have you noticed that we even had the privilege of planting a church on the other side of Mt. Laurel? Have you noticed that the gospel is advancing by leaps and bounds right here in our lifetime? Praise the Lord! If advancing the gospel has become our purpose in life, then our hearts are soaring right now!
We were made for joy. Since we were made to glorify God, and, to quote John Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him,” it stands to reason that our pursuit of God’s purpose and our own joy are inextricably tied together.
Are you happy? The answer to that question is the same as the degree to which you have been living to advance the gospel. Joy goes to the runner who is obsessed with advancing the gospel. When effective evangelism and discipleship has become a person’s passion, happiness is the reward.
Happiness, Lesson 1
The Grinch was a loner. His cat-like face matched his propensity to slink off by himself the way cats like to do. The Grinch’s only friend was a pet dog, but the dog-like disposition of his little buddy actually served to illustrate just how miserable the Grinch was. The dog gave the Grinch an outlet for his anger. He was the whipping boy. But except for the moments when the pot-bellied green guy was lashing out at him, the dog was a happy little fella, and thus provided a stark contrast to the bitter Grinch. They were quite a pair, a small cuddly canine with a big heart and a big disfigured feline with a heart two sizes too small.
Misanthropes are as unhappy as the Grinch. By contrast, Christians ought to be happy, and, dog-like, find our joy in being with people. This is Paul’s first lesson in happiness. There are eight sources of joy described in the book of Philippians, one for each of the book’s eight sections. Let’s consider this first one from Philippians 1:1-11:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
When Christians invest themselves in partnership with other Christians, joy is the eventual return. Verse 4 describes Paul’s joy that always comes when he prays for the Christians with whom he used to run side by side.
When the Kliewer family served as missionaries in inner-city Philadelphia, the Beswetherick family would travel up from Florida with a group of young adults. I met Rob when we were both youth pastors in the St. Petersburg area, where we did some ministry together. We fell out of touch when I moved to Dallas for Seminary, but we reconnected a number of years later. When he became a pastor to young adults at Indian Rocks Baptist Church, we resumed our partnership in the gospel.
Rob and his family would help us throw block parties. We would secure permits, then open the fire hydrants in the streets, inflate some giant water slides, blare some Christian music (usually hip hop), shoot hoops with the teens, play games with the kids, paint some faces, give away some t shirts, and, most importantly, preach the gospel. As a result, we would get to see professions of faith, baptisms, and growth in church attendance. It was awesome.
The memories of some of the wild things that happened on those missions trips make me smile, even now, as I reminisce in my mind while writing this. Moreover, when our family travels to Florida, we love to see the Beswethericks and talk about the good old times. And when our family prays for their family and for the people of Kensington (which we need to do more often), we ask the Lord to bring to completion the work He began.
Remember this: The goal is ministry; the fruit is joy.
Happiness is not so much the target as the inevitable byproduct. It’s the opposite of collateral damage. A loner thinks he’ll be happy by isolating himself, but he hurts the people in his life by pulling away from them, and his own Grinch-like misery is part of this collateral damage too. It’s a lose-lose proposition. But involvement in Christian ministry in partnership with other Christians is the goal we are to pursue, and the byproduct is our own joy. It’s a win-win. Partnership in the gospel is a major part of God’s design for our joy.
When I finished up as a youth pastor in St. Petersburg, the new youth pastor had arrived and I didn’t want to cramp his style or step on his toes. So, I thought I couldn’t do ministry with those guys at that time. However, I still had one week before my moving truck departed for Dallas. So, I decided I would go by myself out to the streets of Clearwater for several days and try to lead Scientologists to Christ. But it turned out to be a bummer. None of them responded to the gospel. Finally, on the last day before I moved to Dallas, I invited one of the young adults from that old church to go out with me. Wouldn’t you know, three people prayed with us to receive the Lord! The Lord taught me a great lesson that week. When He sends out workers into the harvest field, He sends them out in partnership. The early missions of the apostles were always two by two. Paul always moved in a traveling party. The lesson for us today is not only that ministry is more effective this way, which it is, but also that the partnerships that are forged in the fires of ministry have divine design for the completion of our joy throughout the years of our ministry.
The longer we run for Christ, the greater the return on investment we receive. That return doesn’t come in money, but in people!
I’ve only run three marathons in my life (all when I was much younger), but I’ll never forget the people I ran them with. One of my running mates, both in sport and in ministry, was Clint Harp. As providence guided his life, he ended up as the woodworker on the HGTV show Fixer Upper. He was part of that group of youth ministers along with me and Rob Beswetherick, way back in 2002. The older you get and the longer you run, the more joy you derive from the portions of the race you ran well. The best memories are of those who ran side-by-side with you.
Not everyone wants to be happy. It’s a lot easier to settle for something less, like anger. Since anger does deliver at least a small dose of satisfaction, a lot of people choose that broad road. Sadly, even many Christians prove themselves unwilling to do the hard work of becoming happy. The Grinch was content to whip his dog, until providence changed his course.
But God has better things for us. Is God providentially working in your life right now, calling you to work on becoming a more joyful Christian? Do you want to become a happier man or woman of God? Then think about ways to get involved in ministry. It’s a long-term investment, but the partnerships you forge in the gospel this year will bear the fruit of joy in the years to come.
The Happiness Hour
On his radio show, Dennis Prager devotes an hour a week to the subject of happiness. The subject has proven important enough to fill the hour week after week, year after year. Prager has a lot of good things to say about the subject, perhaps the most important of which is that being a happy person is a moral responsibility. To walk around as grumpy as Eeyore is to have a draining effect on others, which is a profoundly unloving thing to do. Plus, it is an affront to the God who made us for joy.
But of what use is happiness in this life if it is to be followed by an eternity of misery (Matthew 16:26)? Sadly, Prager rejects the Author of life (Acts 3:15), the only One who can make a person happy forever. He gathers golden nuggets from the Law of God, but he fails to take that Law seriously enough, imagining himself to be a righteous keeper of the Law. Prager may wear his earthly happiness as a badge of his own spirituality, a token that supposedly proves that God is happy with him. But in the end, being without Jesus Christ, Prager cannot help himself, let alone the millions of others who look to him for help with their struggle to find joy.
In a fallen world, even the redeemed may at times struggle to be happy. Some Christians suffer from low levels of dopamine or other chemical imbalances, or they face extremely difficult circumstances. There are many factors that can make it hard to be happy. These can affect Christians, not just others in the world. That a Christian might struggle to be happy in this life is not prima facie evidence that he or she lacks eternal life. But, that said, there really are “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6) available to the Christian, which include not only eternal life in the world to come but also “new life” (Acts 5:20) in this sin-cursed world. Even in a fallen world, Christians should find ways to be happy.
Growing into a joyful disposition is like any other area of Christian sanctification. The redeemed grow out of bad habits, like smoking, cursing, and sexual sin. The redeemed grow into good habits, which include the things that make for joy.
Happiness is part of the inheritance of the Christian. Joy will be our eternal possession. One day we will experience the “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11) when we enter into the very presence of God. And there are levels of joy available to Christians even now, higher levels than most of us imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
If you are Christian and those around you would not describe you as an especially joyful person, then I’m going to tell you where to look. The answer isn’t Dennis Prager’s radio show. Happiness is to be found by reading the Bible, and in it’s most concentrated form, it is to be found book in the book of Philippians.
Recently the Lord showed me a most amazing thing about the book of Philippians. I saw that it divided quite naturally into 8 sections. I gave each of those sections heading. Then, reading each section again, I noticed something that each section had in common. What I saw blew my mind. Every single one of those sections had within it a specific verse about joy. Suddenly, joy burst out of the book of Philippians like an image from an autosterogram (Autostereograms are two-dimensional images with repeating patterns that hide an underlying three-dimensional image). What’s more amazing is that when I saw joy jump off the pages of Philippians, I felt joy rise up inside of me.
So, I have decided that the next eight editions of this newsletter are going to be devoted to taking these eight passages one by one. We’re going to study Philippians in eight parts, with a view to increasing our joy. Like a Christian Happiness Hour, week after week, we are going to pursue happiness.
If Prager has the answer, then why is the same Happiness Hour offered again and again? If it had power to make the unhappy happy, why is still needed every week? Prager’s shows are like the Jewish sacrifices of old, “would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins” (Hebrews 10:2)? If Prager’s shows could make people eternally happy, then why do they need to keep coming back to his well every week?
Unlike Prager, we have Christ. Therefore, we ought to have faith that God will increase our joy as we look to the book of Philippians. So, please read the book of Philippians this week. Pray that in the weeks to come, God will make us glad (Psalm 92:4).
To Be After God’s Heart
David committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdered Uriah, and cost Israel thousands of lives by pridefully numbering the fighting men. Yet God calls him a man after His own heart. What is the meaning of this?
Most teachers I’ve heard on this subject have taught that repentance is what’s needed. They are not wrong. Psalm 51 is David’s song of repentance. It drives right to the heart of the matter, describing the repentant “heart” in verses 6, 10, and 17. After he sins, the man after God’s heart comes to God in heartfelt repentance.
But the key to understanding more fully what it means to be “a man after God’s own heart” is found in another phrase that the Bible itself places alongside the one with which we are so familiar:
“And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will’” (Acts 13:22).
Repentance is only one example of the larger issue. God says that “a man after my heart…will do all my will.” That is, to be after God’s heart means to be willing to obey, even when the thing commanded is exceedingly difficult. The repentant heart only comes into play after a stumble, because the command at that point is to repent. But the obedient heart is what God is actually after.
What separated David from Saul? That’s the contrast that set up the famous description of David. David is Saul’s opposite (1 Samuel 13:14). Both of them sinned. Both displayed occasional periods of stunning hardheartedness. But Saul was never an obedient man, whereas David was. When faced with a giant who taunted the God of Israel, Saul was able to consistently stifle the prompting of his conscience and of the Spirit (1 Samuel 17:11). David obeyed (1 Samuel 17:32). David had heart! Saul’s sacrifice of sheep (1 Samuel 13:13) and then unwillingness to slaughter other sheep (1 Samuel 15:14) demonstrated that Saul simply did what he wanted, not what he was told to do. Conversely, David was a man after God’s heart because he would obey God.
Christians today have made an art out of confession and repentance. Preachers rightly emphasize grace, but speak too little about the necessity of obedience. As a result, many Christians live in persistent sin, regularly confessed and subsequently repeated, yet they convince themselves, “God knows my heart.”
Well, to the one living in persistent disobedience, God does know your heart. He knows that it is not after His.
How then can a Christian have a change of heart? It begins with sincerely praying Psalm 51. Literally read it aloud as a prayer to God. But it doesn’t end there. There are acts of obedience that you must go forth and do. That’s the second step, the definitive step. To describe David, some translations render the second part of Acts 13:22 this way, “he will do everything I want him to do.” After repentance (according to 1 Samuel 15:11, even Saul cried out to the Lord all night), subsequent obedience to what you know God has told you to do is what will define you as being “after God’s heart.”
It’s not enough to keep a quiet time. Taking time to read the Bible and to adore, confess, thank, and supplicate (A.C.T.S.) is good, but quiet time alone is only enough to make you half-hearted. When Jesus says “abide in my love,” he’s not primarily referring to quiet time. Jesus’ command to “abide” in John 15:10 means “keep my commandments.”
The Sight and Sound theater portrayed David beautifully. You can listen to the songs from that production on Youtube. In one of them, David sings, “I am after your heart.” David’s obedience proved those words true. We should stop assuming that we are “a man after God’s heart” until we learn from Acts 13:22 what God is after. We can become like David, but to do so, we’re going to need to show some heart.
Against Fear
Fear gripped the heart of the King. News reached King Ahaz that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was in league with Syria to make war against Jerusalem. Israel was Judah’s brother, but now they were attacking with the enemy. Isaiah reports that “the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind” (Isaiah 7:2).
Have you ever felt your heart shake like a leaf? Fear grips the heart when intimidating circumstances lay just over the horizon. Sometimes fear takes the strongest grip in a time a peace, because we have time to think about what might be coming. In the thick of a battle, who has time to think? But when we receive bad news of impending difficulty, like King Ahaz did, fear IS the battle.
In contrast to the fearful response of Ahaz in Isaiah 7, we have the example of the faithful response of Isaiah himself in Isaiah 8. He faced the same dire circumstances, but look how he faced them:
“And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz” (Isaiah 8:3).
Surprising. Isaiah’s response was to continue on with ordinary life. As if the threat of war wasn’t barking at the door, Isaiah and his wife live their life as a married couple, and the Lord blesses them with a child. God even tells them what to name the child, which turns out to be quite a mouthful. Why the strange name?
“for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria” (Isaiah 8:4).
The name meant that God was going to deliver his people! The threat that Ahaz feared would not be Judah’s undoing. In the mysterious ways of God, “the cloud you so much dread is big with mercy and shall break.”
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Because Judah didn’t look to God for deliverance, but instead relied upon Assyria, although they would get short-term deliverance, their long-term prospects were still dire. Before too long, Assyria would overrun them. God used Assyria to rescue Judah from Israel and Syria. Now God will use Assyria to discipline Judah.
So, what will Isaiah do now? This time God isn’t promising to take the suffering away. Will Isaiah say with Job, “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)? Or will Isaiah succumb to fear?
“For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” (Isaiah 8:11-13). The strong hand of the Lord sustained Isaiah’s faith. Isaiah kept his eyes on God and refused to fear what so many in Jerusalem feared.
Isaiah then reveals the secret of his strength. It wasn’t in long hair like Samson. It was a source of strength that is available to every child of God, no matter the circumstances we are facing.
“Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn” (Isaiah 8:16-20).
While most of Jerusalem’s children were trying to tell the future, Isaiah anchored himself in the Word of God. He preserved it among his family and all the disciples who would rally to it. “To the teaching and to the testimony!” was his battle cry. They ran to the Word. They hid themselves safely in the Word!
The Word of God tells us to “fear not” at least 366 times, one for every day of the year, even on a leap year. The key point is that fearing God means trusting him with our future. In the long term, we all must die and face judgment. But trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and for eternal life removes our fear of death. “Oh death, where is your sting” (1 Corinthians 15:55)? In the short term, we ought not fear circumstances, because however dire they look, it is easy for God to reverse them! If God can send the Assyrians (of all people) to blindside Judah’s enemies to their North, then God can use anything at any time to do whatever He pleases. No situation is ever difficult to God. God doesn’t fret. God’s love isn’t reckless. Everything that happens on earth is completely under His control (Psalm 33:11, Proverbs 16:33, Daniel 4:35).
Church, let’s take the perspective of Isaiah rather than the approach of most of the people of Jerusalem. We are the remnant. Let’s not fear what they fear. Instead, let us rally around the Word of God and support one another with God’s fear-crushing words.
Do you know what it feels like to be a leaf shaking in the wind? Do you, like Ahaz, sometimes tremble that way? You’re not alone. Rich Mullins, like so many Christians, felt like a leaf shaking in the wind, and wrote the following words about it. Let’s close this teaching against fear with what he said:
“Well sometimes my life just don’t make sense at allWhen the mountains look so bigAnd my faith just seems so small
So hold me Jesus ’cause I’m shaking like a leafYou have been King of my gloryWon’t You be my Prince of Peace
And I wake up in the night and feel the darkIt’s so hot inside my soulthere must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus ’cause I’m shaking like a leafYou have been King of my gloryWon’t You be my Prince of Peace
Surrender don’t come natural to meI’d rather fight You for something I don’t really wantThan to take what You give that I needAnd I’ve beat my head against so many wallsNow I’m falling down I’m falling on my knees
And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymnAnd Your grace rings out so deepIt makes my resistance seem so thin
I’m singing hold me Jesus ’cause I’m shaking like a leafYou have been King of my gloryWon’t You be my Prince of Peace
You have been King of my gloryWon’t You be my Prince of Peace”
Against Fear,
Pastor Jeff
Maturity Is Suffering Well
This morning I sat across the table from a charismatic faith healer. He excitedly told a story of encountering a paraplegic in a park. As his story goes, back then, he was not yet mature in his belief that “it is always God’s will to heal; healing in this life is promised in the atonement; we just need to grow in faith to be able to receive it.” So, when he saw the man in the wheelchair, he couldn’t muster the courage to approach. However, after passing the man several times as he strolled his laps around the park, like a vulture circling his prey, he finally garnered the intestinal fortitude to descend upon the man and offer to heal him in Jesus’ name.
The man welcomed the idea. So the faith healer took off on what would be his first adventure in trying to offer the prayer of faith. He prayed and prayed. But the man wasn’t healed. The faith healer was temporarily disheartened. What he saw with his eyes didn’t seem to match what he believed in his heart. As the faith healer eventually got in his car and drove away, he comforted himself with a thought: “I could see in the man’s eyes that I offered him hope of being healed and that was what he needed that day.” I wonder if the look in that man’s eyes changed as hope faded while he watched the faith healer drive off into the distance.
Another proponent of this kind of faith healing, Steven Furtick, the popular pastor of Elevation Church, wrongly interprets Mark 6:5 in a way that lends itself to incidents like the one in the park. Says Furtick,
“The power of God was in Jesus, the healing power of God, the restoring power of God, the same power that made demons flee was in Nazareth, but Jesus could not release it. Because it was trapped in their unbelief. And there’s one thing that even Jesus can’t do. One thing that even the son of God can’t do. Even Jesus cannot override your unbelief. I see y’all looking at me like, ‘Is that true? I thought He could do anything.’ It said, ‘He could not.’ He wanted to. He was prepared to. He was able to. The power of God was in Nazareth, but it was trapped in their perspective.”
The Greek word in Mark 6:5 is edynato, which is a negation of dynato, meaning power. Edynato does indeed mean “to not have the power” or “to not be able”. But in what sense? Hebrews 13:8 teaches us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” so there is never any want of power within Himself. He was every bit as powerful on that day in his hometown of Nazareth as He is any day and anywhere else in the Universe. We’re talking about the One through whom all things were made (Hebrews 1:2).
To be “not able” in Mark 6:5 referred to submission to the will of the Father, a will He also shared. It didn’t refer to subservience to the will of the men of Nazareth. It was the Father’s will in Mark 6 to pass over the wicked hearts of the people of Nazareth. Jesus “could do no mighty work there” only in the sense that God did not will to grace them with sign gifts to confirm Jesus’ messianic claim. His purpose was often to do miracles in the presence of faith, and in this particular case, He purposed to meet a lack of faith with an absence of miracles. It was His divine prerogative, not a constraint external to Himself, that limited Him from doing mighty works there.
Jesus didn’t marvel at their unbelief because His usually reliable superpowers were suddenly neutered by their kryptonite-like unbelief. Jesus marveled that the people who watched him for decades as He lived among them still didn’t recognize His true identity. Indeed, apart from the miraculous lifting of the veil (2 Corinthians 3:14-4:6), no one sees Him for who He is. It’s amazing how blind all people are apart from grace. The real miracle is that He ever chooses to open the blind eyes of underserving people like ourselves.
“Growing in faith to receive your miracle” is not a biblical description of spiritual maturity. Growing in faith does not mean increasing in ability to receive what God “wants to give” but which He is somehow prevented from giving on account of human unbelief.
Here’s a better definition of maturity: suffering well. God has dominion over all things, including our suffering (1 Peter 1:1,6,7,10-12, 3:17, 4:11, 4:19, 5:11). Suffering is for a little while, whereas glory in Christ is for eternity (1 Peter 1:4,13,24, 4:13, 5:10). Growing in grace by taking to heart apostolic teachings, like those of 1 Peter, is the true path to spiritual maturity.
Studying “the will of God” in 1 Peter is very helpful along these lines. “Thelema” is used 4 times (2:15, 3:17, 4:2, 4:19). The usages alternate between 2 different senses in which God has a “will”. The revealed will of God (2:15, 4:2) are the prescriptions of God that we are commanded to live by. These are the things that are revealed to us. It’s our job to obey His will, in this commanding sense of the word. The secret will of God (3:17, 4:19) refers to God’s decree. This includes everything that God has determined to come to pass. We don’t live with knowledge of such things (like the identity of the elect, the day of our death, whether or not God will heal a particular ailment). That’s why we call it the “secret” will of God, drawing on language from Deuteronomy 29:29. It’s our job to trust His will, in this sovereignty sense of the word (James 4:15).
Spiritual maturity means living according to the revealed will of God while trusting Him with His secret will. Rather than fretting all the time about whatever circumstances God will allow to come into our lives, maturity is concerned about pursuing holiness. Holiness is not an option, but a command, a necessity, and a joy (1 Peter 1:13-21, 2:11-12, 4:1-6). This, I think, is the kind of growth in the faith that Peter was concerned that we have. Grow in godliness by the pure milk of the Word (1 Peter 2:2).
My paralyzed Uncle Herb was, in my estimation, one of the most mature Christians on earth during his latter decades on earth. He never mustered faith to receive a healing. He trusted God’s plan, even where that plan included suffering. He remained joyful. He used to write out copies of the Bible by hand. He prayed unceasingly. He went around town in his wheelchair evangelizing whomever he could. He watched and waited for the second coming of Jesus. Strive for that kind of maturity.