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

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

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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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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

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Maybe it’s time to act.

 “The believer at minimum can declare by his will that he wants the truth, that he wants to know and obey the truth.” – Watchman Nee

There are times in life when we have the luxury of thinking things through then making well-reasoned decisions. There are other times when we have to make an immediate choice.

Such was the case in the time of judges in Israel. The battle was on and the tribes of Israel were called by Deborah and Barak to send fighters to defend their land and their families. Many came immediately. Others refused. The tribe of Reuben simply thought about it too long, and the battle was over while they were still thinking: “Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart” (Judges 5:15b).

We can get paralyzed with overthinking when God is calling us to act. We want to do things right and to confirm God’s leading, but we don’t always have the luxury of deliberation. What then?

If we are consistently reading the Bible and taking it into our hearts and lives,

If we are people of habitual prayer, and

If we are growing accustomed to sensing God’s direction in our lives

Then we often can proceed without the prolonged “great searchings of heart” experienced by the Reubenites. Why? Because we will have been trained by God and his Word to think biblically, to understand the way he leads, and then to respond in confidence when we need to make a quick decision. After all, we don’t want to deliberate too long and then find out we have missed a God-given opportunity.

Wisdom tells us to practice biblical thinking every day so when we need it most it will be ready to use.

“Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.”

– Proverbs 3:6 NLT

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Reaching out to Heaven

“Scripture and souls are the primary fields of operation of the Holy Spirit. . . God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities.  We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit” – Eugene Peterson

Does your prayer life need a lift? Sometimes we find ourselves repeating the same prayers every day. That’s OK, but sometimes we wish we had a fresh approach in reaching out to God. For me, that fresh approach is found in praying over the Scripture passage I’m reading. When I do, I’m interacting with God about the message he has given. I think he likes that.

If you want to try it, the psalms are a great place to start because most of them were written as prayers in the first place.  So we can pray along with David or the song-writers or the praise-givers and know that these words and these pleas are inspired already. God will honor his word.

Here are some specific suggestions for how we can pray God’s word back to him:

  1. Go through the passage line-by-line, thinking about what each phrase means. Then start a conversation with God about it.
  2. Pray the truth of what you are saying will penetrate your heart and be made evident in your life. 
  3. Focus on the intention of the words of Scripture as if they were your very own. 
  4. Pause to listen between lines or verses to hear what the Holy Spirit is telling you about application to your life or what he may be revealing to give you a fuller understanding of the text.
  5. Offer thanksgiving to God for whatever he brings to you mind as you pray his word.

God has begun the conversation. It’s our turn to respond.

“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” – Psalm 40:8

            

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Sometimes it’s good to change your mind.

“No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same.” – Philip Yancey

We tend to get set in our ways. We choose a path and follow it not realizing that all the obstacles that come may be God’s way of telling us to turn around. We sometimes defend opinions we’ve held for years without recognizing there might be another way of looking at things. We read our Bibles already knowing how we understand the passage, not being aware that God might be trying to give us a new perspective this time.

We’re not always right. Sometimes new information or new insights mean we have to be willing to change our minds.

Jesus and the Pharisees were having a discussion. When he asked them whether John the Baptist’s message was from God, they whispered together for a few minutes and then came back with their answer: “We don’t know.” Matthew gives us the back story by saying they were afraid to give an answer because of what people would think. Jesus challenges them again by saying they might not have been sure at the beginning of John’s ‘ministry, but after all the teaching and signs given, they should have been able to see the truth and speak it. They should have been willing to change their minds.

God expects us to make decisions, enter into relationships, and have opinions. But if I understand him correctly, he also expects us to take in new information, think deeply about our positions, and make changes when it is appropriate. It’s OK to change our minds. If we are growing in our faith, it will become necessary at times.

” . . . to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” – Ephesians 4:23-24

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Not much new there.

“Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.” -Charles Spurgeon

We were driving home from church last week, and I asked my husband, “What did you think of the sermon?” The message was based on a very familiar passage from the Sermon on the Mount, so, after thinking for a minute, he said, “There wasn’t much new there.” I agreed.

Every pastor reading this is cringing at this point, but the story didn’t end there. We began to talk about certain points this pastor made, and I acknowledged there was one point that was my “take away” for the morning – something that I needed to hear and to pay attention to in my life. Then Warren said he really had one of those, too, and his take away was specific to him. We had a great time talking about what changed for us as we listened to and processed that message.

What just happened? The Holy Spirit showed up. He took an old message, a familiar passage, and applied it in a new way in our hearts. The scripture is the same we had heard from our childhood until now, but our life circumstances are different, the problems we face have changed over time, and our hearts are more or less receptive at any given moment.

So we need to keep going back to the Word of God. True, it’s an ancient book, but it’s not a dead book. It may be old, but it never gets old. It refreshes our souls in new ways and with new emphases over time.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12