Spiritual growth

Less of Me

“We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” – David Platt

We sing a song in our church with these lyrics: “If more of You means less of me, take everything. Yes, all of You is all I need. Take everything.” Wow. That’s a lot to pray. Take everything. Why would we pray that kind of prayer? Maybe because we’ve figured out that our way of doing things really doesn’t work!

We present an aura of confidence, good will, and purity when inside we are none of those things. It’s easy to fall into a life of covering, posturing, and pretending. And it’s exhausting!

Instead of an ego-centered life, God wants us to admit our weakness, so he can be our strength.

He wants us to give up our earthly desires, and let him provide what will really satisfy.

He challenges us to stop trying to be better, stronger, wiser, and, instead, to focus completely on him.

He invites us to relinquish pride, appearances, being right, honor, self-satisfaction, superiority, authority, perfection. He doesn’t want those things to be important anymore.

Why all this giving up? Because God knows that when we always have to be in control, we’re not able to accept the greater gifts he offers us.

When John the Baptist was preaching, he had many followers. When Jesus came on the scene, John pointed to him as the one he had been talking about all along, and he says, “He must increase and I must decrease.” He deliberately steered people’s attention away from himself and onto Jesus.

I think that’s what this is all about. Less of me. More of him.

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:3

Is it time for a change?

“How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me . . ?” – Philip Yancey

Every now and then in our lives, we long for change – wanting something new, different, challenging, inspiring. It’s natural at those times to try to find the satisfaction we need by adjusting externals: rearranging the furniture, taking a trip, or changing jobs. Those things, though, are superficial compared to an internal change that will truly make a difference.

It might be wise at times of dissatisfaction to pause and ask God if there is something in our lives he wants to change. His ideas of what we really need are surely better than our own temporary fixes. I had a friend who daily prayed, “Lord, meet me at the point of my deepest necessity.” That’s the kind of change that will fulfill the longings we have. Only he knows our “deepest necessity.”

I can’t possibly say it better than Paul:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 The Message)

“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.” – Isaiah 43:19

The Monks’ Two-Minute Rule

“Thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way – in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.”
– Os Guinness

High up in the mountains of central Greece sits Meteora, a monastery representing retreat from the world and all its temptations. However, the monks realized, as isolated as they were from worldly allurements, they still had problems with evil thoughts – things like vengeance, lust, envy, anxiety, and pride. The thoughts just seemed to come out of nowhere and, once planted in their minds, they began to savor them, engage them, and treat them as welcomed guests.

St. Paisos the Athonite, one of the great teachers at Meteora, heard their confessions and gave this advice: Essentially he said that an evil thought is like a hand grenade tossed into your mind. When it comes you have about two minutes to toss it back. If it stays longer, it will explode and cause great damage. It comes from the evil one. Throw it back to him!

We know from Jesus’s teaching that evil thoughts are where sin begins in our lives. If we are serious about our spirituality, we simply can’t accept them. We have to cultivate good thoughts instead: Those that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable and excellent (Philippians 4:8) and those that are from above (Colossians 3:2).

It’s not sin to have evil thoughts come into our minds, but it is a sin to let them stay. And, if we do, they will lead to pain and destruction. The trajectory of our lives begins in our minds. Let’s protect ourselves by protecting our minds. Remember the monks’ two-minute rule!

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” – Romans 8:6

Learning to Learn

“I am still learning.” — Michelangelo (at age 87)

Someone once told me, “Some people live and learn. Others just live.” I’m hoping we all want to be the first kind!

So, what do we need to learn? Sometimes it’s professional, like a new skill we need to develop in order to do our jobs better. Sometimes it’s personal like how to adapt to health challenges, financial pressures, growing-up children, aging parents, or relationship struggles. And, always, it’s spiritual. Every challenge we face and every mistake we make has a spiritual component – something we can learn.

How can we learn at whatever stage of life we are in? The first recourse, for those who are Christians, is the Bible. We need to keep reading it, following its wisdom and its Author.

Next, we need good counselors or mentors. There are always those who have already traveled the road we are on and can offer sage advice from their own experience. And sometimes books can be those mentors to us if we find quality authors sharing their wisdom.

Finally, we just need to pay attention. Friends and family communicate in words, deeds, and sometimes just body language. Our own bodies tell us what they need. Watch, listen, learn. We can never stop learning. We need guidance in every step of this journey through life.

As we learn, we live better: Serving where we are placed. Taking care of our bodies. Loving those nearest to us. Getting to know those who are farther away. Mourning meaningfully. Enjoying celebrations. Sleeping well.

Let’s learn something every day of our lives!

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all the day long. – Psalm 25:4-5

Stay for dinner.

“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend.” – Henri Nouwen

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock”.  Jesus announces his presence at the door of our heart. If we let him in, what will he do? Criticize the dirt that’s there? Tell us our closets need to be cleaned or there’s stuff we need to get rid of? Or maybe he’ll turn around and leave when he sees what’s behind the door.

No. None of those things. Here’s what he says next: “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20).” If we let him in, this verse tells us he wants to have dinner with us. He wants to sit at our table and have us tell him about our day. He wants to enjoy the vegetables we bought from the farmers’ market. He wants to share our everyday life.

Eating together is an important value to God. Psalm 23 tells about him preparing a table for us. Some of the sacrificial offerings in the Old Testament times were fellowship offerings. The sacrificial lamb was eaten as a sign of communion with God. And don’t forget Jesus fed 5,000+ people at one time and 4,000+ another. God seems to love the relationships that come from sharing food.

If Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart today, or mine, let’s let him in. Then invite him to stay for dinner. Let him become a friend. He will surely change some things in our lives over time, but, for now, he just wants us to invite him in.

“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts . . .” – Acts 2:46

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Thirsty?

“Knowledge about Him will not do. Work for Him will not do. We must have personal, vital fellowship with Him; otherwise, Christianity becomes a joyless burden” – John Piper

When I talk to friends who are more health conscious than I am, they always encourage me to drink more water. Apparently, water lubricates joints, is necessary for digestion, delivers oxygen throughout our cells, makes healthy skin, regulates body temperature and blood pressure. We need water, and when we don’t have enough, our body calls for it by making us thirsty.

Thirst is typified in the Bible as a longing for God. The psalmist said it this way: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Do our souls thirst for God? If things are going OK, we just move along sipping here and there, but not really feeling the thirst. That’s when he may take us to the desert for a time so we will begin to thirst again.

I have a friend in the desert right now. She’s not sure how she got there; the journey there was just a little at a time. She’s beginning to feel God’s absence, his quietness, and she wants to sense that connection again. She’s getting thirsty!

God wants us to want him. He wants us to be dependent on him, to know how much we need him. And we do need him, but we don’t always realize our great our need is. The desert, as much as we resist it, creates the thirst that will bring us back to the still waters. He is leading us there.

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.– Psalm 63:1

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Care and Feeding of the Soul

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing” – C. S. Lewis

We focus a lot on our bodies. We try to exercise, eat good food, get enough sleep, and take the right supplements. Why do we do these things? So our bodies will be healthy, our organs will be free to do what they were designed to do, we’ll have less pain, we’ll live longer, and we’ll be useful. On the other hand, there are practices that will destroy our bodies: addictions, inactivity, poor diet, and stress, to name a few.

Just as there are healthy practices for our bodies, there are healthy practices for our souls. We can feed our souls by reading and meditating on the Bible, slowing our pace, and spending time with others who are also feeding their souls. We can exercise our souls by worshipping God and by loving others. We can undergird our soul health with sincere prayers to the one who created us and who is preparing a place for us to be with him forever.

Caution: Just as with our bodies, there are things that can damage our souls: Lies, evil influences through people or media, hardheartedness toward others, bad attitudes, and neglect of God. Run from those!

God wants us to take care of our bodies. He made us, and caring for ourselves honors him. But, if we want to be happy and to live meaningful lives, we must not neglect our souls. A sick body with a healthy soul is at peace. A healthy body with a sick soul will never be satisfied. Do we need to adjust some priorities?

 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” – 1 Timothy 4:8

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Spiritual Boost

“A spiritual life requires human effort. The forces that keep pulling us back into a worry-filled life are far from easy to overcome.” — Henri Nouwen

Have you ever felt your spiritual life growing cold? The fire you once felt is now just embers? Here are some practices that help me when I feel that way:

  1. Gratitude: One of the easiest antidotes for spiritual stagnation is thanksgiving. It sparks the life of the Spirit. Every. Single. Time.
  2. Solitude: This means removing distractions – whether those distractions are work or people or cell phones. A vibrant spiritual life depends on time alone with God.
  3. Fasting: Traditionally, this means giving up food for a specified time to allow for more focus on the eternal matters of life. It can also mean fasting from anything that seems to draw us into excess.
  4. Spiritual friends: I have a friend who sometimes says, “Do you want to get together next week?” When she does, I find time because I know she wants to meet in a quiet place to talk about spiritual matters and pray together. We all need friends like her.
  5. Worship: It doesn’t have to be in a church. We can worship in a quiet place at home, or on a walk, or while driving the car – anywhere we can think about the absolute wonder of God, enjoy his presence, praise him with words or song. Worship wakes us to the awe-filled mystery of being in relationship with our Creator.

The Holy Spirit is often depicted as fire. The practices listed here will invite the Spirit to reignite our love for God and others. And there is amazing joy and excitement when he does!

“. . . I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. . .” – from 2 Timothy 1:6

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How do you treat a friend?

 A rule I have had for years is: to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend.– Dwight L. Moody

Years ago, a simple statement transformed my thinking. A. W. Tozer wrote, “God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can.” I read that and began to think about how I treat people with whom I’d like a relationship.

First, I’m willing to spend time with them. Eventually, we both begin to share things close to our hearts – ideas we were pondering, spiritual struggles, family, hopes, fears. Over time, those shared concerns create a loving bond.

So, I began to do that with God. As I went through my days, I talked to him about family, worries, struggles, and dreams. I knew he was listening and felt him near. I read his word so I could get his responses to the things I brought up during the days and nights of our conversations. In short, I learned to spend time with him as I would do with any friend.

Then Tozer said, “God is a person, and in the deep of his mighty nature, he thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may.” If God has feelings similar to humans, how should I treat him? If a supposed friend ignored me or didn’t return my calls, that would be hurtful. If, though, that friend loved me, listened to me, or followed my advice, I would be pleased. I decided I wanted to do and say only things that would give him pleasure.

A lot changed for me when I began to think of God as a friend. It can for you, too. Just hang out with him, include him in everything, and enjoy his company. You’ll both like it.

“Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” – Exodus 33:11

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Doing, being, becoming

“To fail to see the value of simply being with God and ‘doing nothing’ is to miss the heart of Christianity.” – Peter Scazzero

Have you set goals for 2024? Many of us have. We want to set our sights on what we can accomplish before another new year dawns. Many of the self-help books tell us to set goals that will challenge us – “dream big”, they say.  I think it’s good to keep reaching, to want to achieve, but most of us will get to the end of this year with some goals that are unfinished, unreached. What do we do with that?

Maybe we need a little balance: Striving and achieving, yes. But, maybe more importantly, being and becoming.

Here’s why: Some year, we’ll set our goals for the last time and we don’t know when that will be. So wisdom tells me that part of our planning this year should include becoming. Becoming more peaceful and less anxious, more loving and more generous, quieter and wiser, becoming more like Jesus. There will always be goals and plans that are unfinished! If we wait to get them all done before we focus on our personal and spiritual growth, we will never give ourselves permission or opportunity to become.

Let’s  go for it with goals for 2024. We can work hard, achieve, and glorify God in the process. But, at some time each day and for longer times on non-work days, let’s stop doing to spend time with God: talking to him, walking with him, reading his book, singing him songs, listening for his voice. These will open the door to becoming who God created us to be. Then we’ll know that it may be OK if lesser goals remain unfinished.

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” – Psalm 62:5