Power of Baby Steps

Power of Baby Steps

Key Scripture: “So take a fresh grip on life and brace your trembling limbs. Don’t wander away from the path but forge steadily onward. On the right path the limping foot recovers strength and does not collapse.” Hebrews 12:13, Phillips

“So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.” The Message

Power Point:

A few months ago our little joy, Hannah, would not walk. She put it off for a long time because it was more fun to be carried wherever she went.  Now there is no place too far for her to go. In fact, Kim (My precious daughter-in-law) found some shoes that had squeakers on them so that everywhere Hannah goes, Kim can hear her and find her. It’s been a good thing because Hannah likes to play in the bathroom or in the kitchen cupboards and it’s often necessary to pinpoint where she is.

I can’t remember what it was like when I was learning to walk as a toddler, but I do remember some of the struggles of “spiritual toddlerhood” when I was first beginning to walk in the Spirit. Like Hannah, I really preferred to be carried. I wanted to go up the steps to kingdom living without having to climb them. And Father God was really good about carrying me until one day He decided it was time for me to learn to crawl up those steps on my own. If I had never learned to crawl and then walk spiritually, those muscles would never have developed and I would have walked with a perpetual limp.

Beloved if we continue to take “baby steps” in exploring the kingdom of God, we’ll never develop our spiritual muscles. We won’t ever be strong enough to advance to the next level of authority, or knowledge about the benefits of our inheritance.  We’re supposed to g-r-o-w in faith. We’re to develop faith muscles and grace muscles and hope muscles and love muscles. If we don’t do that it would be sort of like Hannah before she got the courage to walk on her own-we’d be left behind in nursery school while those around us who have learned to walk are now concentrating on running their race.

How about you? Are you still taking baby steps or are you ready to move past the “squeaker shoes” to track shoes and run your race with faith on your own two feet? Your heavenly Father is still there to hold your hands but He really enjoys listening for the “squeaks” as you go running off toward the goal ahead of you.

When I was little we used to play a game called “Mother May I”.  You had to ask permission to take baby steps or giant steps in order to reach the “mother” or “father”.

Sometimes our heavenly Father will tell us to take “baby steps” in the beginning of a new challenge in the kingdom but Beloved, at some point He will ask you to take giant steps.

You need to be sure your muscles have developed so that you can.

Power Thought:

First we crawl, then we walk, and then we run. That’s progress. You’ve got to walk before you can run.