Are you a spiritual person? I can't imagine anyone who would want to say no to that question. But what does it mean to be a spiritual person? Is it an openness to spiritual ideas? Is it a willingness to discuss deep subjects?
Those things may be true of spiritual people, but they are not what make us spiritual. What makes us spiritual, according to Jesus, is the Holy Spirit living in us! The Spirit is given to all who have experienced salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, at the time of our salvation (see Romans 8:1-11). But, the question is, do we have a role to play in our spiritual growth? The answer: Yes! Paul makes this absolutely clear in Galatians 5:25 when he writes, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Paul says, “Let us keep in step.” But how do you "keep in step with the Spirit"? That's what spiritual disciplines or spiritual habits are all about. Daily time in God’s Word and prayer, weekly time in worship with God’s people, fasting, serving, even simple obedience are all activities that help us to keep in step with the Spirit. At the beginning of a new year, it is natural to think of resolutions, changes we would like to make in our lives for the good. But of all the resolutions a Christian could make this new year, I am hard pressed to imagine any more significant than those which would effect greater spiritual growth. And foundational to all spiritual growth, subsequent to saving faith, is daily time in the Word and prayer. Do you have set apart time every day to be alone in His presence? Luke 5:16 tells us, "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." If Jesus needs regular, set apart time to be alone in the presence of the Father, so do we! This is certainly the place to start...meaningful set apart time each day to be in the Word and to pray. That time in the Word, at the start, may be fairly basic. Many churches, like ours, supply the "Our Daily Bread" booklet as a resource for daily time in the Word* (one which can also be found on-line). For more substantial time in the Word, it's great to always be reading through books of the Bible. The book of Mark is a great place to start, maybe a chapter or two a day. Bible study, digging deeper into individual passages, is also of immeasurable value to spiritual growth, especially when it culminates in sharing the fruits of your study with others in a Sunday School class or small group. Finally, one of the most powerful means of Bible intake is through the preached Word in a local gathering of God's people. Certainly, it is important that the Word that is preached is derived from the Bible itself! Yet equally important is the person in the pew...that they practice attentive, discerning listening and faithful church attendance which allows the Word to build upon itself from one week to the next. But whether in daily Bible reading or in weekly worship, regular intake of God's Word is as necessary to the nourishment of the soul as food is for the nourishment of the body. If the Bible is God's primary means of speaking to us, prayer is our primary means of responding back to Him. In truth, one of the most effective ways to grow a prayer life is by allowing meaningful time in the Word to be the launching point for our time of talking with God. Talking with God, in prayer, can be done silently, but it is so much more meaningful for daily prayer time when it is expressed either aloud, through the spoken word, or in writing, through the written word. To those who are so inclined, writing prayers in a prayer journal can be a great means of growing a prayer life. Of course, meaningful spiritual growth is meant to thrive in the context of committed, faithful worship together with God's people. As we read in Hebrews 10:25, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." What day is that? The day of the Lord's return. Jesus is coming back. In view of this glorious hope, may spiritual growth be priority for all of us in 2019!!! *Good devotional books are Scripture-saturated and drive us to actually open our Bibles!
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Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:16–17 I have found that one of the most difficult and elusive things to grasp and maintain is perspective. That is to say, I suffer far too often in daily life from a lack of perspective. It’s the irritation I experience when someone cuts in front of me in line at the store, in the car or at the post office. It’s the ungracious manner in which I defend myself when I feel slighted by a brother. It’s the way that I too easily succumb to the tyranny of the urgent while marginalizing time in God’s presence, or with His people, or doing His work. I struggle in the moment by moment affairs of life to see what is truly important. I struggle with a lack of perspective. And yet, God is always tugging at my heart, seeking to rewrite the false narratives I harbor. I’ve seen His corrective on my perspective in so many different venues, but most often when I am gathered with His people for worship, or when I am sitting at His feet before an open Bible, or when I am enjoying a silent, holy moment on a tree trimmed trail in the mountains. These are times when perspective is easy to find, when the little trials of life are miles away, when I catch a greater glimpse of who I am, who God is, and what it’s all about. But there are also times in life, unique circumstances, when perspective comes rushing in like a flood. Often times it is in the face of significant life events: marrying off a daughter, celebrating a son’s graduation, or witnessing the beginning or ending of life. On Saturday, it was the last of these experiences which produced in me a more profound perspective than is usually found in the day to day. For on Saturday I participated with hundreds of others in the celebration of life for a young lady who had been a classmate with my children. The death of a young vibrant Christ-follower is difficult to process. It left me shaken Sunday morning as I prepared to preach and teach. It wasn’t that I knew her well. I’d seen her family at homeschool events. I’d joined in on a family visit to Children’s Hospital after a very serious medical emergency had rendered her unresponsive. Yet despite minimal interaction, I could see in this young woman a passion for life, for people, for Christ. As a result, our hearts break for this family having to say goodbye to one whose life had only just begun. How do we make sense of such tragedies? Honestly, I don’t think we always can. Certainly, God has already used this tragedy mightily to draw people to Himself, to give many a greater vision of eternity (Eccl. 7:2). More than this, the way this young lady lived her life is a powerful lesson on living life to the full! However, it still doesn’t necessarily make sense to us. Yet, whether or not we can make sense of it, such a tragedy has a profound ability to provide us with greater perspective in life. More than just a glimpse of perspective, an event like this is enough to produce a paradigm shift in our practical theology—i.e., the way our faith works itself out in daily life. Tomorrow is not promised to us. Before we know it, we will all be standing in the presence of the utmost high God. It certainly makes our pet sins, our selfish over-reactions and our hyper-focus on the things that are passing away seem utterly foolish. “The judgment” is so often the butt of a joke or something we take rather lightly. But C. S. Lewis correctly conveys standing before Christ, for the follower of Jesus, as something that is at once sobering and awesome. In his sermon, The Weight of Glory, Lewis writes: It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is. To be pleasing to our Creator, through Christ, is the weight of glory that “far outweighs them all”! Outweighs what? Outweighs our light and momentary afflictions. Light and momentary? Did you really just say that, Paul? Do you belittle my suffering?!? Paul, as a man who, himself, experienced great suffering for the sake of Christ, does not use “light and momentary” lightly! His goal is not to minimize our pain. But he speaks this way to help us put it all into eternal perspective. Paul knew pain. As he writes earlier in this chapter, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:7–9). It is clear that Paul knew hardship, severe hardship, yet it is equally clear that he relied on the power of God at work in our “jars of clay” and he focused his hope on an eternal weight of glory. He knew that one day he would stand before the author of creation, face to face before his Lord, and that in that moment every gut-wrenching grief, every body-breaking trial, every heart-rending tragedy would fade away into oblivion. It was this reality that moved Paul to live his life to please his God. We are programmed, at birth, by the fall, to please ourselves first. Sadly, far too often, we who are called “Christian” give much greater thought to pleasing self than we do to pleasing Christ. However, when we realize just how short our time on this earth truly is and just how trivial passing pleasures truly are, we begin to grasp what is truly important! We are the recipients of His life. We are the objects of His affection. We get to share in His glory. Here is perspective. Here is a right view of life. It is through this lens we know that though we are wasting away outwardly, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Day by day we are being transformed into His image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). This reality trumps homes and cars and retirement funds; slights and pleasures and selfish wants; sickness and heartache and even death! Perspective. Having said this, it doesn’t remove the pain, the difficulty, the struggle. It may put it all into perspective, but it doesn’t take it away. As Lewis goes on to write, “Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning.” Yes, this is the truth for you and me as we continue to plod along on planet earth. At the beginning of a New Year, I can think of nothing better than receiving a healthy dose of perspective…eternal perspective. For in the face of self-focused hopes and dreams and desires and busyness and stuff…we need to see anew life from the perspective of the King of Glory. For He is no longer a babe in a manger, but the crucified, risen, and reigning Lord. It is His pleasure that is most significant, His honor that is most profound, His glory that is most desirable. And we get to share in this weight of glory! My prayer for myself, for my family, for my church, for all who love Jesus, is that we will live our lives with eternal perspective, and increasingly so as the day of His return quickly approaches. May we see the temporary things of this world for what they are…and may we have eyes to see that which is unseen, that which is eternal. May we have the same resolution in the day to day of life as Paul demonstrates at the conclusion of this rich chapter, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! |
Dan GannonDan has ministered at Renton Bible Church, with his wife Debbie, since 2003. Archives
June 2022
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