The 49th Parallel: "Now That I'm a Man" - Bruce Atchison

This is a song about maturing into adulthood. Once children grow up, they gain a new perspective on everything. Listen to the song here:

I certainly have matured in my prayer life. For example, I didn't even know about daily prayer until somebody asked me if I prayed each day.

My prayers used to be filled with requests for myself. Then I began praying for my family and friends. After a few years, I started praying for persecuted Christians and folks whom I didn't know personally.

We all need to mature in the faith, particularly in prayer. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11 (Bible in Basic English), "When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child."

God expects us to grow, even as we expect physical children to develop. That's why Hebrews 5:12 (BBE) instructs, "And though by this time it would be right for you to be teachers, you still have need of someone to give you teaching about the first simple rules of God's revelation; you have become like babies who have need of milk, and not of solid food."

And while it would have been nice to have been tutored by Christ in the flesh, we have his promised Holy Spirit guiding us. As Jesus promised in John 14:25 and 26 (BBE), "I have said all this to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will be your teacher in all things and will put you in mind of everything I have said to you."

This gives us an advantage over even the wisest of secular people. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:14 (BBE), "For the natural man is not able to take in the things of the Spirit of God: for they seem foolish to him, and he is not able to have knowledge of them, because such knowledge comes only through the Spirit."

So let us use this privilege to its full extent.