A verse I've been chewing over these last couple of days:
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."
Romans 8:5-6
This verse has really spoken to me as I definitely feel the weight of conviction that I'm more caught up in the physical world (the flesh) than I should be. Preoccupied with material possessions, benefits, pursuits and pleasures, the Spirit is so often shoved into second place.
And this verse says that is death.
Death!!!
That's not good. And the truth is you can feel a death within you when you get preoccupied with the physical. Because it doesn't satisfy, at all. When time with God gets squeezed out you feel very hollow.
These last few days I've reprioritised a few things and it's been really liberating. Setting my mind on the Spirit has been very refreshing. Physical, material things fall out of focus. All of a sudden, they're not so important. Your weight, fitness, bank balance and leisure time — when you set your mind on the Spirit you remember they're just temporary things. This physical world is all passing away.
"but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" — how awesome is that promise! Life and peace are two things that everybody craves. To be alive spiritually and at peace with God is very, very good. There's an eternal ring to that phrase.
Over the last two and a half years I've managed to shed about two stone in weight and keep it off. Quite a beneficial exercise from a health and fitness point of view, but it was also really interesting as a lesson in discipline.
In many areas of life discipline seems to be one of the key ingredients for effectiveness and success. It's not the only thing you need, but it's massively important. If you want to persevere in daily prayer and bible reading, be good at your job, be a good husband, run a business or excel in an area of ministry, a lot of it does just come down to discipline. Which is in itself quite a skill.
Here are a few of my current observations on the nature of effective discipline:
1. You have to set yourself a goal. Long-term, mid-term and short-term help spur you on and track your progress. In particular, having daily and weekly goals really help you drive and achieve what you're aiming for overall. If you just have the big long-term vision without breaking it down into smaller steps, you don't notice your progress quite so much and tend to get easily discouraged. You get sort of lost in the journey there.
2. You have to really go for it. The end goal is something you have to really want. Anything you set out to achieve is likely to be quite difficult and challenging. Desire, passion and zeal are tools in your pocket that you have to have. Otherwise the discipline becomes cold, hard, bitter and lifeless, and you'll inevitably give up. The thing you're fighting for should be a source of joy. The joy and satisfaction you gain from being successful in your fight needs to outweigh the struggles and trials you face on the way.
3. You have to experiment, problem-solve and persevere. The initial methods you employ in your goal are going to need refining and perfecting. They might not be very effective at all to begin with. But you have to try for a period, then look back and analyse what did and didn't work. If you can figure out why something worked or why something failed, you can then take that information a create a more effective method. You repeat the process over and over until you home-in on something that really works for you. It's quite a time-consuming process, but one which can lead to long-term effectiveness. The hardest part is getting the momentum in the early phase without giving up. If you can persevere at the beginning, you're in good stead for long-term success.
4. I think the final lesson I've learnt thus far is that overall consistency is more effective than 'peaks and troughs'. For example, it's better to hit consistently at 80% capacity than attempt short bursts at the limit of what you can achieve. If you set out to run a marathon, you don't sprint out of the blocks like you're running the 100 metres. You'll knacker yourself out and collapse in a heap before the race has really begun. Instead, you have to pace yourself at a lower level which you can maintain. Your initial short term goals should be very achievable to ease you into the flow of things, like a good warm up. Then, as things progress and you acclimatise to the challenge, you can gradually increase the intensity.
I was in the shower yesterday morning when a thought struck me. About the nature of discipline.
Discipline, you must admit, is absolutely essential for anyone to live a life that pleases God. The very word 'disciple' comes from the root word 'discipline'. And that's exactly what we're called to be. But, when have you ever been able to consistently do anything you didn't want to?
Joy and discipline are inextricably connected. You're disciplined in the areas that you believe lead to greater happiness, and you often enjoy the disciplines themselves. The guys in the gym cranking out their routine every day are there because, underneath the hard work, they love it. They love the gradual transformation of their bodies, and they probably enjoy much of the routine itself. There are hard, difficult days, but they know that their long term joy is routed in overcoming certain obstacles.
And I think the same must be true of the Spiritual Disciplines. We engage with God daily because we love it. Discipline is involved, but it is by no means the main ingredient. Our love of God is. And that leads to great joy.
I was in Bedford a few weeks back in a teaching session by Andrew Wilson. He was talking about the fight for Joy (which he's also taught at Kings previously: The Fight for Joy). One of his points was that we should discover what things increase our joy in the Lord and make a discipline out of them.
Just like the guys in the gym, it probably takes some hard work, perseverance and experimentation to find what really works for us. But when we get the thing going, engaging with God daily, our joy and the love of God are what fuels our efforts.
"As Bonhoeffer says, 'If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free reign to the desires of the flesh ... we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ.""
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, page 165
Original quote: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (London: SCM Press, 1964)
From 'Celebration of Discipline':
"Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we must experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial."
p158
"Of all the classical Spiritual Disciplines, service is the most conductive to the growth of humility ... Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honour and recognition."
p161
"True service rests contented in hiddenness. It does not fear the lights and blare of attention, but it does not seek them either. Since it is living out of a new Centre of reference, the divine nod of approval is completely sufficient."
p160
One reality must be clearly understood in the life of service. The very fact that we are finite means that to say 'yes' to one task of necessity means saying 'no' to other tasks.
p172
"The outcome of the great war is not in question. It is certain. Christ will reign victoriously forever. The only question we must answer is this: Will we fight on his side or against him? We answer this question not just once, with our words, but daily, with our choices."
Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 105
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matt 6:34
I was thinking about Rach Pavey's contribution at church a few weeks back about 'strength for today' - that God doesn't give you strength for the year, or for a decade or a month. He gives you strength for one day at a time. Rach is experiencing this to the extreme, but I was thinking that it's an incredibly important principle to learn in general life. Hard times or not.
You see it over and over again in scripture. Manner falls from Heaven - God provides out of thin air for his people when all natural means of provision are absent. But they're commanded to gather only enough for one day. God wants our confidence set firmly in him. In the Lord's prayer Jesus gives us a template - to pray for our daily bread. Nothing more. And the Lord's prayer itself sounds like a daily prayer. Daily we ask for strength against temptation, daily we forgive, daily we seek first God's kingdom and daily we pray for deliverance from evil.
I was wondering, off the back of this, if a lot of lethargy and apathy in out struggle against sin is born out of thinking too far ahead. We think about whether we can struggle and fight week in week out, year upon year, for the rest of our lives. The task seems impossibly big and we collapse under the weight of it. We don't even try. But if you broke it down and just focused on today, the next 16 hours you're awake, suddenly it sounds okay. One day at a time. And tomorrow - we wake up and do the same.
This no doubt has a similar application in a number or other areas. Provision, health, singleness, marriage, work, relationships... pretty much anything about you life that causes worry, stress and anxiety.
"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you"
John 15:7
That word 'abide' means to dwell within, to consistently live in Christ and have his words living in us. It's a call to consistency, on a daily basis. It's not a fluctuating obedience or discipline, it's total trust in Jesus, in our hearts and minds, and backed up by our actions. It's an unshakeable belief that every word of God is true, right and good. What I believe this verse is saying is that as we enter into this state, our prayers become more inline with God's thoughts. What we ask for, how we ask and why we ask will be more Christ-like, and perhaps our prayers will have a greater degree of success.
It occurred to me the other day that we don't always need to completely scrap and revise our efforts when something isn't quite working well enough. Often it's just a series of minor changes that together can be very effective. Like fine-tuning an engine.
I think I'm always tempted by the 'scrap-it-and-do-things-completely-differently' approach as it can offer a solution that seems the most radical. But if you get your sensible pants back on, problem solving is best because you adjust one bolt at a time. You eventually see just how influential each component is, and end up with a greater working knowledge.
Over the years I've found this to be massively true in my work as a self-employed designer, in my diet, in my personal finances, in leading a life group and probably a few other areas as well. Sometimes I need the reminder though – don't quit. Tweak, test and re-adjust.
I once read a No Fear poster that said "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Trouble is, most of us don't set ourselves a goal. We don't know where we're running and we've got nothing to shoot at. It can feel a little unproductive.
A goal has to be clearly defined. You've got to mark it out exactly and play towards it. It pretty much applies to everything in your life that your life that you want to be fruitful in: generous giving, bible reading, daily prayer, dating your wife, health and fitness, leading a life group, earning a living... on and on. You've got to mark out your goal and track your progress.
If you take the picture further, most of the excitement games like football isn't found in the goals themselves. There might only be two or three in 90 minutes. It's in all the action leading up to them: the passing, the tackling, the shots from 40 yards that ricochet off the post. It can all be really exciting. And I guess it's the same in life. You don't always succeed on your first attempt. But it's exciting seeing how close you came. You try, try, try again until that ball is in the back of the net.
It occurred to me that when you say a particular task or goal is 'impossible', you effectively remove any obligation to try. I know I often think certain things are impossible when really they are just difficult. There's quite a distinction between the two.
One state of mind requires no effort what-so-ever, while the other you have to try, train, pray, problem-solve and persevere. I know I have to be really careful in mindlessly substituting the latter for the former. In one sense they're similar words, but the distance between them is incredible.
Last thursday at Life Group we watched the Francis Chan 'Basic Series' on the fear of the Lord. The week leading up to it I was chewing it all over, and it's been really good. I've done a few talks on the fear of the Lord before but this DVD has thrown some extra verses into the mix and shed further light. As it happens, the fear of God plays out in some quite unexpected ways.
One of the things that really strikes you from the DVD is how fearful of God we should really be. My gut reaction is this: I have a certain level of fear, but nowhere near enough.
"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead"
Revelation 1:17a
Francis Chan relates to all these biblical characters that had an encounter with God and were absolutely terrified. Even when people see Angels in the bible they're nearly scared to death. All of this leaves certain questions spinning round your mind:
Should I have that terrifying level of fear?
Is it even possible?
Is it even appropriate for daily life?
Does it not conflict with all the hope and promise we have in Jesus Christ, that we are in fact reconciled to God, and can boldly approach his throne? (Hebrews 4:16)
On the one hand you would have to conclude that the appropriate level of fear would probably kill you. Like in Exodus 33:18-23, Moses isn't allowed to see God's face, only his back, because no one could survive that. Part of my speculation on the hiddenness of God is that it's not his plan to terrify us on a daily basis.
But on the other hand a certain level of fear is prescribed. Without it, you wouldn't even be a Christian.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
Proverbs 1:7
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise."
Psalm 111:10
Some musings
These two verses highlight some really interesting points. Firstly, why is the fear of God the beginning of knowledge and wisdom? It must lay the foundation for everything else. If we don't understand that the universe and humanity was designed and created by an awesome God, all of our knowledge runs astray.
You can be really, really intelligent in the same way that you can run really fast in completely the wrong direction. All these scientific, social, biological, philosophical theories are constructed, but they miss vital ingredients and it changes everything.
Secondly, in the first verse, why does it say 'fools despise wisdom and discipline'? Surely it should say 'fools despise the LORD'. I would guess that wisdom and discipline both imply a change of lifestyle. It feels restrictive. Fools hate the idea.
But this has some personal implications. To what degrees, as Christians, are we fools? What areas do we despise wisdom and hate discipline? We've all got areas where we accommodate all sorts of sin and disobedience, lack of discipline, lack of fear. It's so easy to read about 'fools' in the bible and not think you're one of them.
Fear of God equals faith
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
Matthew 10:28-31
This concept of fear is not just an Old Testament, Old Covenant thing. Here Jesus himself, in the New Testament, tells us to fear. But the theme develops.
He says “be afraid” and then “don’t be afraid”.
We have one type of fear that conquers all others.
And this seems to rather aptly answer the question 'what level of fear is appropriate?'. Our fear of God should quench all others. When we're on the same team as God, when eternity is secured, even death is now an upgrade. In the verse above, the threat of murder is completely annulled. Fear of God equals faith in God.
The fear of the LORD is the weight behind us
"What, then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Romans 8:31
It’s not just Christians who should fear God. It’s everyone. If we could really grasp how terrifyingly awesome our God is, we might understand the depth of our confidence in Him.
And finally...
The fear of the LORD equals life
"The fear of the LORD leads to life: then one rests content, untouched by trouble."
Proverbs 19:23
That sounds unbelievably good. Life, rest, contentment, peace – untouched by trouble even if surrounded by it.
Following on from a previous note on being expendable for Christ (link) often, it's not our physical life that is required (i.e. martyrdom), but various little portions of our daily life. Finances, work, comfort, hobbies, fitness, luxuries, time... all of these need to be labeled 'expendable'. We give them up as and when required for the cause of Christ.
Andrew Wilson delivered some brilliant teaching on the Spiritual Disciplines last Sunday. The point was that, like an athlete in training, they are methods and techniques for developing the fruit of the Spirit.
"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Galatians 5:22-4
And thus... we become more like Christ, which is kind of the whole point. I think what was brilliant about it was that I had never heard / thought of some of them. I had also never thought in terms of abstinence and engagement. I have, to this point, subconsciously pursued all the disciplines of engagement while forgetting, neglecting, or not even realising the value of abstinence. Here's the list according to Wilson:
I feel like a whole new set of tools have been place in my hands. This is good.
It's so unbelievably easy to buy some immediate want or apparent need with a credit card or an overdraft. But in doing this we fail to realise the opportunity of prayer laid before us, an opportunity to listen to our Father and wait for His answer. We forget that all our money is His. And we deny Him headship over our finances, even in the small purchases. Slowly but surely you creep into the oppression of debt and find yourself in a place your Father never intended.
Perhaps many of our 'needs' are really 'wants'. A little bit of discipline and self-denial is good for the soul.
From the Biography of James Hudson Taylor:
"To me it seemed that the teaching of God's Word was unmistakably clear, 'Owe no man anything'. To borrow money implied, to my mind, a contradiction of Scripture – a confession that God had withheld some good thing, and a determination to get for ourselves what He had not given. I could not think that God was poor, that He was short of resources, or unwilling to supply any want of whatever work was really His. It seemed to me that if there were lack of funds to carry on work, then to that degree, in that special development, or at that time, it could not be the work of God."
p198
"They who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true,
but also that when we fail to trust fully He still remains unchangingly faithful. He is wholly true whether we trust or not.'If we believe not, he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself'. But oh, how we dishonour our Lord whenever we fail to trust Him, and what peace, blessing and triumph we lose in thus sinning against the Faithful One. May we never again presume in anything to doubt Him."
p199
"Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."
Romans 13:8
"If we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself."
2 Timothy 2:13
"The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communication with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world."
Charles H. Spurgeon
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:10
This is nothing to do with salvation (which is a free gift by grace alone); it's about the purposes of God for your life, the path you walk and the works you actually complete. It's like you can start out walking the path and completing the works God prepared for you to do. But maybe something in your trajectory is slightly off.
Maybe it's something in your mindset, habitual sin, or a lack of zeal. Slowly but surely, if you don't course-correct, you end up miles off course. You might not even notice until you're 40 or 50, and you realise that you've missed much of the purposes God had for your life. The gap from what might have been is larger than ever. And perhaps unobtainable.
James Hudson Taylor seemed to course-correct very early on. And he walked this way throughout his life. His trajectory was probably very very similar to God's plan A for his life.
At church last Sunday (15.11.09) Andrew Wilson was speaking and read a verse from Genesis 5. It was 5:23-24 and reads "all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him".
That key phrase for me was "Enoch walked with God". It fires off a real ache in your gut. A real desire to have that. If there was one line written about you after you're gone surely it would be "[your name] walked with God".
"If you're not satisfied with the permanent output of your life it could be that you're just spinning your wheels, never engaged in what really counts."
G Campbell White
Most of life just seems to be dealing with the same old stuff: busyness, temptations, struggles, tiredness and such. What sparked off this thought was reading my journal from 5 years ago. I read it, and I realised it's all the same old stuff! Over and over, round and round. It's easy to think "when I get past this issue [insert your issue] life will be better and I can really focus". But maybe those same struggles will be there for the rest of our lives. Maybe we'll never get past them, maybe we can only get on top of them.
Maybe we have to shape-up and realise that all of life is a fight. Rather than be all overcome, living a half-hearted Christian life, we have to get on top and beat all of that stuff into submission. Otherwise, in 20 years time, it's going to be the same old story.
Again, it seems to come down to this whole analogy of a fight, or a war. It's so easy to forget, yet so prominent in the bible:
"the whole world is under the control of the evil one"
1 John 5:19
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 6:12
Sometimes I think that we, in the love of the teachings on grace, are so afraid of being legalistic that we fail to be disciplined. We're so scared of having a structured, regimented approach to reading the bible and prayer that we only do them when we're in the mood. We inevitably forget about them altogether and lead a sloppy Christian life.
But then, the whole point of the Great Commission is to "go and make disciples", to make followers of Jesus who are disciplined. Being a Christian is like walking a narrow path along the summit of a great ridge. There's slopes either side, and the place you want to be is right in the middle.
Sometimes we back so far off from legalism (or moralism) that we can slip off the other side. Surely diligence in the spiritual disciplines is a very good thing. You don't earn any holy points by doing them. They simply put you in the right place to hear from God.
