Hello @chris,
Thank you so much for your well thought out response. Appreciate the time you have taken to explain the relationship between maturity and gifts by sharing both from your own experience and scripture. I think your words above sum it up very well and helpful! In those words, I see how humility would manifest in the body of Christ, dependence on God for expressing our own gifts and dependence on others in areas we lack.
Well said! I think this clearly shows that spiritual gifting doesn’t mean spiritual maturity. God seems to spiritually enable a person not because a person is somehow more qualified but to meet the needs at hand and bring Himself glory.
I can see how boldness would come if we were fully dependent on God. However can an absence of boldness mean a lack of dependence on God? At each stage of spiritual growth, we can be at our maximum maturity but yet it may not be enough to meet the demand in our imperfect world, which can lead to a certain level of anxiety. Depending on our anxiety masking skills, we will show different levels of boldness though we are walking in the direction God has called us. So, I think boldness is dependent on more than spiritual maturity at a point in time, such as skill/gifting and bent of personality.
I think sometimes many sincere believers are set aside and not given much of a listening ear on biblical truths they have to share because they have lacked boldness. Such a person may need encouragement from others to feel welcome and accepted to practice their gifting instead of being shamed for where they are in their growth. I bring up this issue because I have seen how sincere believers have felt unloved in churches. I appreciated the value you placed in balancing boldness and humility in assessing spiritual maturity.