I
believe, at root, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is about
relationships;the relationship you and I have with our Heavenly
Father, and with each other. Unfortunately, the business of the world
around us tends to lend itself to the inability to maintain said
relationships, at a deep level, with any one other than those closest
to us, including our Creator. This is where the spiritual
disciplines become so very important to us. While some might think
of the spiritual disciplines as the means whereby joy and laughter
are extinguished from off the face of the earth, the Spirit calls us
into this lifestyle, and through it, enables us to commune with God.
Because of our lack of such communion, we often find ourselves
agreeing with the words of Donald Coggan, the Archbishop of
Canterbury: “I go through life as a transient on his way to
eternity, made in the image of God but with that image debased,
needing to be taught how to meditate, to worship, to think.”
Superficiality is the curse of our age. Webster defines
“superficial” as “something being on the surface, not
penetrating the substance of a thing; shallow, not deep or profound;
reaching or comprehending only that which is obvious or apparent.”
We might think of a crack on a wall that one would continuously patch
over and over again, only to find that the real problem is not the
crack, which is a symptom, but that the real problem is the
foundation. Until the foundation is made sure, no cosmetic fix will
ultimately be sufficient. We, as a people and as a Church, must move
past this shallow life, and seek the face of God. This, we achieve
through seeking our Lord with everything that we are, aided by the
leading and tender prodding of the Holy Spirit.
THE primary requirement to entering into the spiritual
disciplines is a LONGING after God. King David penned the words “As
the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee; O God. My soul thirsteth for to see God,for to see the living
God; when shall I come and appear before thee, O God? Deep calleth
unto deep at the noise of thy waterpouts; all thy waves and thy
billows are gone over me.” The Psalmist reiterated his longing for
the Lord as such “Whom have I in Heaven but thee? And there is
none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart
faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion
forever.”
Why do we struggle with this? There are two main
reasons why the spiritual disciplines are hard to maintain. First,
we must be willing to lay down the everlasting burden of needing to
manage other lives for them. There is no truth in trying to to
compare ourselves to anyone else except Christ. We need to set our
own homes in order first. Secondly, the spiritual disciplines remain
difficult because they involve a constant, intensive evaluation of
our motives throught the light of Jesus. We are not even qualified
to judge ourselves. Only as His light is shown upon us, will we see
the dark, and even, shaded areas of our motivations. Recall the
prayers of the Publican and the Pharisee in Luke 18. The Lord shared
this particular parable as an attempt to cause His listeners to
realize that He looks upon our hearts, which is the revelation of
motive. And, it is only as His light shines upon us, that we may see
and deteremine whether our heart is pure, or whether we are servants
of ourselves.
The
first of the five disciplines that we would consider is prayer.
Prayer is the greatest barometer of Christian commitment because it's
completely voluntary. It is the means by which Jesus himself
maintained his relationship with the Father, and was unmistakenly
recognized by his disciples. In Luke 11, we have an account of the
request made to be taught how to pray: “And
it came to pass, as Jesus was praying in a certain place, when he
ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray,
as John also taught his disciples.” The disciples recognized the
power that Jesus displayed was connected to his prayer life, because
prayer catapults us into the frontier of the spiritual life; it is
the central mechanism which God uses to change US. It is also the
first discipline we tend to abandon when we are in transgression
(Gen. 3:13+). Prayer is also much more than just the reciting of our
concerns to our Creator. When we pray, we are changed, because we
commune with Him. This is also why prayer is not monologue-it's
dialogue. Let us remember to always give the Lord an opportunity to
answer our petitions. He desires to reveal himself to us (II Chron.
16:9).
The second discipline is fasting. Arthur Oakman once noted that
fasting is much more than the giving up of food; it is the arranging
of our lives around the purpose of seeking our God. One difficulty
with fasting is that we live at a time wheere the doctrine of
“instant satisfaction” is prevelent. We want immediate response
to our overtures, and if not rewarded, the exercise is considered a
waste of time. Another reason this discipline seems difficult is
that we are human beings, and need food to sustain our bodies. This
one particular venture is perhaps the greatest test of our motives.
Too often we find ourselves staying busy to keep our minds from our
plight, when, in reality, this discipline should be the means by
which we focus ourselves on the act of seeking God. In fasting, we
should not focus on the sacrifice, but rather the giving of ourselves
to seeking the mind our our Lord. As the prophet Joseph stated in
Section 59 : “Verily this is fasting and prayer; or, in other
words, rejoicing and prayer.” We cannot allow the physical act of
fasting to remain only an outward form; whenever there is a form,
devoid of spirit, our offering loses its value (Is. 58:6-9).
Study is the third discipline in our endeavor to draw near to the
Lord. Again, the purpose of the spiritual disciplines is the total
transformation of the PERSON. It aims at replacing the old,
destructive habits with new, life giving habits. Consider the words
of Paul, taken from the 12th
chapter of Romans: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world;
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God is.” The
mind is renewed by applying it to those thiings that will inspire and
transform it. The purpose of instruction is to direct the mind
repeatedly and regularly in certain modes of thought about God and
his creation. To be effective, study can be broken into four stages:
First is repetition, the process of channeling the mind in a specific
direction, thus ingraining habit and thought. Second, consentration
is the centering of the mind and focusing on that which is being
studied. Third, comprehension, is the leading of the mind to insight
and discernment, which is the gift of the Spirit (John 14:26).
Lastly, reflection. While comprehesion defines WHAT we are studying,
reflection defines the SIGNIFICANCE of what we are studying. Let us
not mistake accumulation of information for knowledge. When we sit
down to our scriptures, we do so, not to amass information, but to be
changed. The key to this discipline is not reading “many” books
but to EXPERIENCE what we are studying (IITimothy 3:14).
The fourth discipline we use to seek our Lord is meditation. Often,
there is a question whether meditation can be Christian. Our
scriptures teach us that meditation is not the exclusive property of
the eastern religions ( Genesis 24:68, Psalms 63:6, Psalms 119:148, I
Timothy 4:15, and Section 76:3e). The eastern religions teach
meditaion as the means whereby one empties himself of all thought and
separates himself from others. True meditation is the act of filling
oneself with the mind of God. One reason why meditation is so
difficult is because it boldly calls us to enter into the living
presence of God, which is often intimidating to us. Meditation
causes us to realize that not only has God spoken to us, through
scripture, in the past, but that he desires to address us on a
personal level as well.
Finally, simplicity is the process by which we remove much of the
clutter in our lives, and set aside quality time for our Lord.
Simplicity is an inward reality that brings about, or results in, a
lifestyle that cultivates peace. So many times, we allow the world
and its modern conveniences to rule us, not vice versa. Simplicity
is the determination to remain sufficiently unattached to this world,
so that when the Lord calls to us, we can respond both in mind and in
duty. Paul writes to the church in Corinth “But I fear, lest by
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your
minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
The complexities of this world, though helpful as they seem, offer
bondage, anxiety and fear, while simplicity brings about freedom, joy
and balance in our lives. Simplicity is living out the DESIRE to
live FOR God.
It is only as we taste the fruit of the spiritual disciplines, and
the renewed nearness we experience with our Redeemer, that we can
truly be effective in the work of the restored gospel. As the
building of any city begins with one brick, so the future we desire
begins in the heart of every believer. We are called to be seekers of
He who desires to be discovered. It is only as we give ourselves,
unreservedly, to the spiritual disciplines, that our labors will
become fruitful in the building up of the Kingdom of God here on
earth. To this end, may we labor together. God bless.
