Life and Peace

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.

Richard Foster on the Discipline of Service

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

Apathy

I often wonder if one of the hardest sins to overcome is that of apathy: not caring. It has really close ties with unbelief and self-reliance. They're all interweaved and tangle you up in a net. It's what I naturally fall into when I take my eyes off Jesus and start to coast. It's like a slight angling of the heart away from God. Rubbish. Wake up wake up wake up!!

Just Wait

A little snippet of wisdom I heard recently that is most definitely laced with truth and applicable to many, many areas:

"Delayed gratification increases pleasure"

Clinton E. Arnold On The World, The Flesh & The Devil

"It is crucial to recognize that these three influences do not work separately but in concert. It is extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for us to make sharp distinctions among the three in trying to understand our own personal struggles and those of other people."

Illustration and quote taken from 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare, p35