What is the priority and goal of your faith? Is your comfort level more important than expanding your faith? Is your life as real as the central source and focus of existence intended or are you tucked away in a safe nook of humanity, safe from most threats and reality of all others?
Do you attend regular religious meetings with a majority of family and/or friends? Do you believe that; a distant mission field, standing on a public corner or, going door to door is the most outreaching forms of ministry? Is it easier for you to listen to commentaries and sermons you have heard many times before than to consider moving on?
God has called every person to fellowship. However, fellowship is not simply a regular meeting generally with the same people all the time. The availability of comfortably meeting with familiar people regularly is valuable to newcomers to faith. But, just as the safety of a tricycle is an asset to a little child, a bicycle is available and the tricycles safety and comfort becomes a hindrance to growth more than a help.
Are you still riding a tricycle, or perhaps the training wheels are still on your bicycle? Some people are even restricted to bicycles because they can not be mature enough to drive an automobile. To grow in faith means to leave the third wheel behind, remove the training wheels, and balance your own beliefs. Far too many religious leaders have continued to ride faith that is dependent on family and friends and promoted others to maintain the same ritual. It is no wonder that so many people are so immature in their faith throughout life.
If we do not find greater satisfaction in the search for more faith rather than in what we already have, then we have limited faith. If we do not find more faith in the increasing questions than with the answers we already have, then our faith is not mature. If we do not realize that there is more to every question and answer we have than we understand, then the god of our faith is something other than the truly unlimited central source and focus of existence.
The ultimate God of existence would not have us be uncomfortable when we are nurtured to grow in faith. But, God would remove our dependencies as we become balanced and mature in every part of our faith and life. Constant religious involvement with familiar family and friends is not a goal for the faith driven, only an assurance for moving forward. It is the abilities developed in us to be satisfied with more questions than answers and maintain a lifelong search to better comprehend and understand the central source, focus, and creator of existence that continually matures us.
Maturity is not a state of being; it is a state of maintaining balance in constant change. So if you feel that your faith is stagnant, if you generally only associate with familiar people, if you're not comfortable with change, if you have lost your interest in building faith, or if you feel like your faith is challenged or un-stabilized by unfamiliar religions or beliefs; then remove the extra wheels, get enthused "when" you fall, and keep on moving on.
God bless you in your search for endless faith.
Robbie Ousley
Founder of Unidiversal Charasmatic Christian Faith Ministries