One of the dangers of being in church for a long time is that we can become very familiar with spiritual language without being personally affected by it. Words like missions, evangelism, the Great Commission, and the nations can slowly become part of our vocabulary rather than a call to action. We talk about missions, we support missions, and we pray for missionaries—but sometimes we forget that missions is not simply something the church does somewhere else, but something God calls His people to be involved in personally. This month, as the church focuses on missions, the desire is not just to learn more about missions, but to pray more intentionally, give more faithfully, and respond more obediently to what God is doing in the world.

The author of Hebrews pauses his discussion of Christ as our great High Priest to confront a serious problem, spiritual immaturity. That matters, because it shows us that you can be around deep truth, sound doctrine, and faithful preaching and still be stuck. You can be saved and still be childish, in church and yet not growing. And that is a quiet tragedy. In this passage, we will see three marks of spiritual immaturity, not to shame us, but to wake us up. God loves His people too much to let them stagnate. So let the Word speak, examine, and heal.

Appreciating the importance of the Holy Spirit and responding to His conviction is an essential component in this lesson. Our constant prayer should be for the Holy Spirit to give us victory over the flesh, to grant us power to witness, and to enable us to reach our full potential in Christ. The ministry and presence of the Holy Spirit must become a daily reality in our lives!