The good word for the workplace today is: Learn to stay positive even in a negative environment.

You know, many times you can go to work feeling really positive and up, but you leave in a negative, complaining mood. What are the things in your working world that cause you to have a bad attitude?

It can be co-workers or management who irritate you, who cause you unnecessary problems, who don't do their share of the work, or who are very negative people themselves. Most of us have some of those people in our life.

Or perhaps there are times when you have an impossible amount of work to accomplish, or difficult deadlines or pressures, or unrealistic expectations, and that certainly can bring you into negative territory. Perhaps it's your environment: The temperature is not right, or it's drab and dreary, or noisy and hectic. Whatever these things are which tend to make you negative rather than positive, you need to identify them.

Then, look at those things and ask yourselves three questions:

Can I confront this situation and try to change it? I find that most people gripe and complain without making the first effort to find a solution. They give up without trying. I don't think you have grounds for complaint unless you've at least tried to find a solution.

Is there some way I can compensate for this situation? For example, if you have a dreary office, how can you perk it up? Maybe plants and posters will help.

Ask yourself what goes with your territory. Every job, every industry, every profession has certain aspects which simply go with the territory, and those you must learn to accept without allowing them to bring you down.

Think about the things that make you negative and ask God to give you the grace and wisdom to rise above them and be the positive person you need to be for his glory.

What’s the good word today? That’s a cliché we sometimes use. Well, I have good words for you, words of wisdom for the workplace, right from God’s Word. So, here’s our word of wisdom for today:

Learn to overlook insults or hurtful words.

Have you ever been insulted? It's not much fun, is it? Not too long ago, I discovered that someone had insulted me, and I struggled with it quite a bit. But God showed me some good lessons out of his Word about how to handle an insult, and I'd like to share that with you today.

I was upset about that insult; it had hurt and I wanted to retaliate. I wanted to let that person know they had hurt me. I wanted to make them feel badly about it. Can you identify with those reactions? Then I read Proverbs 12:16, which says "Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.”

I knew God wanted me to overlook that insult. But I thought, "That's not fair. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with it." But I couldn’t deny the clear word from God to overlook that insult. That was the first thing I learned about handling an insult.

Secondly, I had to get it out of my mind, because I found I was thinking of it continually, and it was keeping me from getting anything done, it was keeping me upset, it was doing me harm. So, I had to attack the thought patterns and bring them back in line.

Then I asked God to show me what I could learn from this insult, and amazingly, there was a number of good lessons for me that God made clear through his Word.

So, if you've been insulted lately, I recommend this procedure to you. Number one, overlook it. Act as though it never happened. Number two, push it out of your mind every time it starts to come back in. And number three, ask God to teach you a specific lesson from the experience. Then, the whole unpleasant episode will not have been fruitless. You will have grown and learned through it.

I want to give you some words of wisdom for the workplace. First words of wisdom: Talk to yourself in encouraging words, not negative ones.

In Psalm 41 and 42 you will notice this phrase is often repeated: "Why are you downcast, O my soul?   Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”   Evidently the writer was struggling with depression, with discouragement, with the blahs, just like you and I struggle from time to time. And he talked to himself as a way to speak the right words into his mind and turn around his wrong thinking.

In verse 6 of Psalm 42, we read, "My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you...”   Now this is a very good technique and habit for all of us to learn. When you feel down, you should then force yourself to remember and recite out loud God's goodness to you in times past.

Are you having a tough time today? Then, stop right now and talk to yourself; find some place where you can say something like, "Look, Mary, what is your problem? The God of all the Universe loves you and cares for you, he has met your need time and again.”

I noticed in Psalm 42 and 43 that the writer also verbalized his doubts. "Why have you forgotten me. Why have you rejected me?” He voiced those doubts and questions out loud to God, but immediately he came back to the truth of praising God and hoping in God.

When I find myself doubting and questioning God, I try to voice those to him out loud. "Lord, I feel as though you're not there. BUT I know better Lord. THEREFORE, I trust you, I place my hope in you. You are my Savior and my God."

So, talk to yourself. I believe it's a Scriptural principle we need to incorporate into our lives to help us find victory in those everyday ups and downs of life.

Ephesians 5:15-16 says, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” One translation says, “redeeming the time because the days are evil.”  So, on this last day of 2022, I want to talk about “redeeming the time.”

First, I want to tell you what I am not going to talk about:

New Year’s Resolutions – I promise, I will not even mention them again because we all know that generally we don’t do so good by them, do we? They come and go pretty quickly, so I won’t even talk about them.

Setting New Year Goals – Not going to talk about goals for the New Year. Oh, it’s not that we don’t need goals to keep us on track, but that’s not what I’m talking about today.

Going on a Diet – I promise, I won’t mention it again!

Turning Over a New Leaf – not today. Won’t talk about that today.

Just going to remind you that none of us has unlimited time left on this earth. Our days are numbered, only God knows the number, but there is a number and as people often say—when your number is up, your time on earth will be up. So, we need to think about what it means to redeem your time because as Christ-followers, we will be held accountable for the use of our time.

Does that mean we should work all the time, chalk up lots of hours doing things, make sure we punch our imaginary time clocks and try to impress God and everyone else that we are busy? I don’t think so. But what does it mean to “redeem the time”?

Well, when you redeem something, you buy it back so you regain possession of it. So, to me, redeeming time means taking stock of where I’m wasting time and getting it back. It is recognizing that you and I have been given a gift of time from God, and God wants us to live in continual awareness that our time is passing—and passing quickly—and it will be gone and wasted if we don’t redeem it—make the most of it.

Jesus said this to his disciples: “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4 ESV). He certainly was aware that his time on earth was limited and he wanted to be sure that he redeemed that time by doing the works that God his Father sent him to do. He was the best at making the most of every opportunity.

And you know, that meant he had to say “no” sometimes. He chose to take on human flesh and limit himself to a body like ours, so he had to make choices about the way he spent his time while here on earth. Remember the time he told a man that he could not arbitrate an argument he was having with his brother? He said he was not sent to do that, so he didn’t. That’s redeeming the time. The disciples at one time had a crowd waiting in one town, expecting him to come speak to them and heal them as he had been doing, but he simply told them that it was his job to go to other towns. He said “no.”

Are you good at saying no? I must admit that I am not. And that can keep you from making the best use of your time because none of us can do everything we might like or want to do. Redeeming the time is making better and better choices of how you spend your time.

Someone said that we don’t drift toward righteousness. When you drift in a boat, for example, you just let the boat go wherever the water takes it. No directing the boat in the right direction, but just letting it drift. That’s easier than rowing the boat, fighting the waves, trimming the sails, but it won’t get you anywhere.

When you drift in your spiritual life, that’s when you just let life and its circumstances take you where they will. You don’t do the intentional and sometimes hard work of staying alert, being disciplined, steering your life in the direction it should go. So, you drift away from righteousness, not toward it.

Sadly,

This is program number 9205. For 9205 days, or over 1800 weeks, I’ve been broadcasting this daily edition of our program. These milestones cause me to stop and think about God’s goodness to allow me this privilege all these years.

But milestones should also cause us to stop and measure our progress. I’ve been talking about measuring our spiritual maturity, and I can’t help but ask myself at this program marker, have I grown as a Christian over these many years, as I should have? Does Jesus say to me, “You’re big for your age, Mary,” meaning I’ve pressed on and learned and grown up in Christ? Or does he say, “You’re not where you should be after all these years”?

Dear friends, it is so important that we regularly and sincerely take stock of our spiritual progress and make sure we’re doing the things we should be doing so that we are growing up in Christ, not remaining babies, not mired down in the past, not making the same mistakes we’ve always made. Here are some questions to ask yourself to measure your spiritual maturity, based on what we’ve talked about:

Is your tongue more under control today than it was a year ago, two years ago? Do you think before you speak, choose your words carefully, and just simply stop talking so much?

Are you motivated to serve Christ out of a pure heart, just to please him, or are you trying to please people and gain their approval?

Do you love God’s Word more than you used to? Are you spending more time studying it? Is it more and more the true bread of your life? Do you ever memorize some of it?

Are you allowing your past to keep you from growing up in Christ? Are you living in bitterness or regret, which keeps you from pressing forward for the good things God has for you?

And most importantly, are you loving Jesus more and more with each passing day? Do you frequently and fervently thank him for what he has done for you? Does it break your heart to think that you have broken his heart through disobedience?

I urge you to measure your maturity; ask God to show you where your growth is stunted, and then do the things you need to do to grow up in Christ. That is where the abundant life is; that is where you will regain the joy of your salvation and know the peace that passes understanding.

(Click here to download the devotional for the entire week.)

On a scale of one to ten, how would you measure your spiritual maturity? As far as I know, there are no scales for measuring spiritual maturity, but there are biblical mile-markers that can tell us if we are growing up in Christ as we should be.

In Philippians 3 Paul talks about his own growing-up process, saying “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (verse 12). Becoming mature in Christ is a process, and we must be intentional about pressing on. The Apostle then says, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me. . .” (3:13b-14).

Notice that he keeps talking about pressing on, never giving up, always striving to be all that God has created him to be in Christ Jesus. I believe one of the sure signs of our spiritual maturity is whether or not we truly press on, to put our past behind us and to go for the goal—the good works God created us to do.

The enemy of your soul would love to keep you mired down in your past. If he can saddle you with regrets, with bad memories, with bitterness, with anger—any or all of those—as you dwell on your past, then he knows you’ll never grow up. Whether your past is filled with your own wrong choices and their consequences, or with unfair treatment or abuse of some kind, living in the past will cripple you and your spiritual growth will be stunted.

In Isaiah 43 the Lord says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (18-19). Dwelling in the past causes us to miss the new things God has for us, and we are then stuck in our wildernesses and wastelands, never growing into the fullness of what Jesus died to give us.

If your past has you mired down, I pray that you will press on, and with God’s help, put that past behind you, so that you can perceive the way that God is making for you.

We often measure our growth in many areas of our lives, such as skills we’ve acquired, experience we’ve gained, education we’ve acquired, and we’re quick to update our resumes, so to speak, and let the world know how we have grown. But how often do we take time to measure our spiritual maturity and growth?

The writer to the Hebrews is warning them about falling away from the faith, and he writes: “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (5:11-14).

This is a real measure of spiritual maturity—whether or not we are eating solid food or we’re still living on milk. What does that mean? It means that if you’re living on milk, you’re still a baby Christian and you’re not growing in your knowledge of God’s Word. Obviously, this is directed to those who have been Christians for a while, who ought now to be ready to teach others, but instead still need to learn the elementary truths of God’s Word.

You can measure your spiritual maturity by how much you really desire to get into the Word of God, to know it at deeper and deeper levels. I think of a friend in my class at church who is so thrilled because she has the opportunity to take some college-level Bible classes and learn more. She just beams as she tells me how much she loves these classes and how she is learning so much. I have watched her grow up to maturity in Christ because she has an insatiable desire to know God’s Word, and she makes it a high priority.

If your Bible is hardly ever open from one Sunday to another, if you’re not regularly involved in a Bible study of some kind, if you are still in “elementary school” when you ought to be in “college,” then you’re still a baby in Christ, and you need to grow up.

As I look back over my life, the years I lived in disobedience to God’s principles were the years I almost never opened my Bible. The Bible will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from the Bible. So, how do you measure up?

Have you ever said to someone, “Oh, grow up!”? Surely there are times when we want to take someone by the shoulder and say, “Oh, grow up!” I’m just wondering if God ever wants to say those words to me—or you.

I’m talking about how we can measure our spiritual maturity. Are we growing up in Christ? The Apostle Paul addressed this issue of maturity as he wrote to various churches. In Ephesians 4 he wrote that we should all “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants. . . instead. . . we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (4:13 – 15).

What are some measures of our maturity? I first pointed out that our words reveal our maturity. A mature Christian is one who controls her tongue. Another measure is our motivation. What is it that motivates you to serve Christ?

King David gave a strong exhortation to his son, Solomon, who would take the throne after him. We read in 1 Chronicles 28:

And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought (verse 9a).

We can put on a good front and fool others, but we can never fool God. He knows our thoughts and our motives. This is an area that I often think and pray about, because I am well aware that I rarely, if ever, have totally pure motives. I want to, but tucked way underneath, in my heart of hearts, I often have to admit to pride, wanting the praise of people, doing what I do because it makes me feel good.

I have finally come to the conclusion, that this side of heaven I’m not likely to ever have completely pure motivation, but as long as I’m aware of it, praying about it, and desiring to serve God out of a pure heart, he will know and understand. And he will reveal my wrong motives and help me to grow up in this area.

So, another strong measure of our spiritual maturity is our motivation—why we do what we do. Check it out.

As we close out this year of 2022, it might be helpful if we measured our faith to see how mature it is. So, I want to suggest some biblical ways you can measure your maturity and find out if you’re growing up in Christ as you’d like to be.

Our bodies mature on us, whether we like it or not, but spiritual maturity is not something that just happens. We have to be intentional about growing more mature spiritually. So, if we could measure spiritual maturity, how would you measure up?

We sometimes say of children “he’s big for his age,” meaning his physical statue is larger than most boys his age. Could anyone say that about your spiritual statue? Are you big for your spiritual age? Or is your growth stunted?

When we recognize that our child is not as mature as he or she should be in some area, we go to a specialist and try to figure out why our child is smaller than she should be, or slower, or less active. Don’t you think we should be equally sensitive to our own spiritual maturity, and recognize areas where we need to “grow up”?

One way to find out how much you’ve grown in your faith walk is to pay attention to what comes out of your mouth—to measure your words. The book of Proverbs has lots of good advice about controlling our tongues, and in chapter 17 it gives us a clear measure of our maturity:

The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues (17:27-28).

Measure your maturity by whether or not you are restrained in what you say. That simply means you think before you speak; you ask yourself, “How would I feel if someone said that to me?” You consider whether you need to say it or not. You remember Ephesians 4:29, which says to let nothing unwholesome come out of your mouth, and therefore you use words with restraint.

This is one of the most important measures of maturity, because until we learn to control our tongues, we remain in that immature stage, we’re not where we should be, and we need to start growing up. Make it a matter of prayer and ask God to help you control your tongue.

Mary Lowman, Lisa Bishop and Julie Busteed talk about what it is to be generous.