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March 2017 Spiritual Development

Do you ever feel discouraged?  I found a helpful article about how to fight against discouragement and I wanted to share it with you this month.  Here is an excerpt that I found to be very helpful in combatting feelings of despair and resting in the promises of Jesus.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (John 14:1)

Discouragement is a temptation “common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13).  And in dealing with it sometimes we need tenderness and other times we need toughness.  But either way discouragement is not to be tolerated or wallowed in.  It’s to be fought.  If we linger in discouragement it can be costly.  Its sense of  defeat and hopelessness saps us of energy and vision.  It can consume a lot of time.  It can keep us from doing what we need to do because we don’t want to face it.  And it can even be contagious, weakening others’ faith.

When we feel discouraged we want comfort, which is right to feel.  But the comforts we often turn to are ways to avoid our fears rather than ways to muster our courage to face and overcome them. When this happens discouragement simply becomes sinful indulgence in unbelief, no different than indulging in lust or anger or other sins of unbelief.

Jesus does not want us to be discouraged.  In fact, he commands us not to be.  Listen to what Jesus says to his disciples just before what probably was the most discouraging experience of their lives — his brutal death: “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1, emphasis added).  Note Jesus’s words, “let not.”  These are not merely comforting; they are commands.  He knew they would be tempted to fear.  Things were going to look very bad, like the whole mission was imploding.  What were they to do instead of being afraid?  Believe! “Believe in God; believe also in me.”  In other words, “Don’t let your hearts be ruled by what you see.  Let them be ruled by what I promise you.”  And that’s what he’s saying to you and me too.

What’s tempting you to discouragement today?  Are you having a hard time believing that God really will work for good what looks so bad to you (Romans 8:28)?  Then it’s time to fight, not pout or shrink.  Think of discouragement as your faith being choked.  When you’re choking, it’s not the time to plop down in front of the TV with a plate of comfort food to medicate your melancholy.  You need to dislodge the obstruction so you can breathe.  You need to fight for life.  You may need to get someone to give you the Heimlich.

Go get encouragement — faith-fueled courage.  Don’t let discouragement choke you.  It’s dislodged bybelieving promises.  God gave us the Bible so that “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).  Don’t let your heart be ruled by what you see.  Let it be ruled by what Jesus
promises you.

(Excerpt from "Don't Let Discouragement Choke You" by Jon Bloom from desiringgod.com)

FEBRUARY 2017 SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

I have recently been rereading through Dr. Don Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.  If you have not read this book I would commend it to you highly.  It is an approachable, practical guide on how to cultivate spiritual disciplines of Bible intake, prayer, worship, and others.  The section that has made the biggest impact on me so far is about how Christians are to meditate on God’s Word. 

Meditation is the step most often neglected as we take in the truth of the Bible.  We can be good at hearing, reading, studying, and even memorizing Scripture, but meditation is where the truth of Scripture is distilled into the day-to-day activities of someone’s life.  Unfortunately, the idea of meditation if often associated with the New Age practice of emptying one’s mind in order to achieve mental passivity.  But the Bible advocates meditation that fills one’s mind with God and His truth.  The following quote helps illustrate the necessity for meditation:

“A simple analogy of how meditation works would be a cup of tea.  In this analogy your mind is the cup of hot water and the tea bag represents your intake of Scripture.  Hearing God’s Word is like one dip of the tea bag into the water.  Some of the tea’s flavor is absorbed by the water, but not as much as would occur with a more thorough soaking of the bag.  Reading, studying, and memorizing God’s Word are like additional plunges of the tea into the cup.  The more frequently the tea enters the water, the more permeating its effect.  Meditation, however, is like immersing the bag completely and
letting it steep until all the rich tea flavor has been extracted and the hot water is thoroughly tinctured reddish brown.  Meditation on Scripture is letting the Bible brew in your brain.”

Dr. Whitney gives many examples of how to implement meditation into your life that are too numerous to list here, which is why I recommend this book to you, but here are a few that stand out.

First, rewrite the text into your own words.  Paraphrasing the verse you are considering is a good way to make sure that you understand the meaning of the text.  How would you convey the content of the verse faithfully, yet without using the words of the verse? 

Second, think of an illustration of the text.  What picture explains it?  Jesus himself utilized this method when he compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed in Luke 13:18-21. 

Third, look for applications of the text.  The outcome of meditation should be application.  Meditation is incomplete without some kind of application, like chewing without swallowing. 

Lastly, pray through the text.  Biblical meditation must always involve two parties – the Christian and the Holy Spirit.  Praying over a text is the Christian’s invitation for the Holy Spirit to hold His divine light over the words of Scripture to show what you cannot see without Him.

The key to mediation is to not rush.  Take your time.  Read less (if necessary) in order to meditate more.  There’s no value in reading more if at the end you cannot recall anything of what you have read.  My prayer is that we would all grow in our ability to meditate on God and His truth, and that the Word of God would become more precious to us as each day passes.