Spritual Discipline

There are times when we get really excited or at least expectant about things. Then when things don't go the way we expected or hoped we can get really put out. Its this point at which you are "put out", "hacked off" or "ticked" that the enemy has found fertile soil for sin. Especially when this frustration is selfish in that it is about not receiving some form of expected self-gratification. Disappointment is common and when mixed with focus on it can result in a powerful force toward sin. Our focus is like a fire and there are many fuels. You've heard the expression "food for thought". Any thing that can entertain our mind or be "food for thought" is a fuel for our focus. The reason I chose fire for the analogy here is that fire has this uncanny property of increasing instantly in proportion to the amount of available flammable materials nearby. It also follows after them unrelentingly. Sometimes I grow very frustrated about "rabbit-trails", although I tend to be a cheif offender in following them. This is a term that symbolizes the many possibilities or roads of thoughts and contemplations that can be followed during a discussion or personal meditation. Meditation is a vital skill for a Christian to learn and I have been struggling to understand it. It is about learning to let go of focus on some things while holding on to focus on others. It is about directing the fire of our thoughts to consume only certain fuels while determinedly avoiding others. The irony here is that if you focus on how you don't want to focus on something you are in fact focusing on the thing! Sometimes avoiding a "rabbit-trail" is not just about ignoring it, but intentionally following an entirely different one while truly letting go of the first. "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" the saying goes. If you only resist focus on something, but are idle in actively focusing on something else your efforts will not only be futile but in fact have the exact opposite effect than the one you desired. I've been reading a book by Richard Foster called "Celebration of Discipline". It is an excellent book. One analogy he uses in teaching about spiritual disciplines is that Christian life is like trying to walk down a narrow road with a steep drop off on either side. The drop off to the right is symbolic of putting forth great effort to try and do what's right. The problem is you will never be able to put forth enough effort to be righteous. This is what the Pharisees tried to do. The drop off to the left is symbolic of complacency or not putting forth any effort to be righteous due to a realization that any effort is futile. The narrow road down the middle is symbolic of a life-style of spiritual discipline practiced not for the purpose of being righteous, but rather for the purpose of creating the right conditions where God might choose to give you the grace of blessing you with his indwelling Spirit and grant you with fruits of the Spirit (peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, etc.). In his book Foster also refers to our hearts like a garden. In a garden you don't ever force a plant into growing by sheer effort or will power, but rather you tend to the environmental conditions of the garden in hopes that this will foster growth of a plant that will one day yield tasty fruits. It is the same with the heart and God's Spirit is the plant. Maintaining focus on the right things is vital to meditation and it is vital to creating the right environmental conditions for Spiritual growth. It is also vital to appropriately handling disappointment. The ability to handle disappointment is really the majority of what is involved in having faith. Although that is not all it is. The most important element of faith is that one believes and fixes their hope and focus on the thing hoped for continually trusting that it will come about despite disappointments which seem to test the faith. The problem is often times we set our faith on things that have no guarantees. If I go on vacation to Florida with visions of sunny beaches in my head and when I arrive a horrendous hurricane shows up my expectations are dashed. The faith I had placed in the joy I would find in Florida was unguaranteed. In my disappointment at not having the self-gratification of enjoying the dream I had in my mind of what things would be like it is quite common to seek after something else for gratification and find one's self in sin. The key here is to take gratification in something else, but the refuge must be taken in something that IS guaranteed. Only the promises of God are truly guaranteed. Intimacy with God through worship and faith placed in Him is the best way of coping with disappointment. (This is what David did after petitioning and being denied when God did not allow his son by Bathsheba to live.) Sexual intimacy of a husband and wife in marriage in the physical realm is analagous to intimacy found in worship between man and God in the spiritual realm. Although the physical example is but a dim reflection compared to the depth and intensity of the spiritual one with God through Christ. Christian meditation is not only about knowing how to hold on to good thoughts while rejecting bad ones or about tending to the spiritual garden of your heart, but it is also about listening to God and obeying Him when he speaks to you. This is something that must happen daily. Jesus said we must deny ourselves take up our crosses daily and follow him. This means we don't live life indulging in all kinds of self gratification, but rather we focus on the gratification that comes in following Him over time and deny ourselves the instant gratifications that the world tries to offer in exchange. When taking a shower this morning I began to think about how it is necessary to take physical showers frequently to clean the body. Sometimes I don't feel like taking a shower because I am lazy, but if I don't I will get filthier and filthier over time. If that happens a single shower may not be enough to clean myself back to the way I was before. The same is true for the spiritual realm. We need to take spiritual showers daily as well. If we don't spend time in meditiation on Him, striving to listen to Him and obey what he says to us each day then over time we get filthier and filthier in our callousedness and worldliness. At that point one day when we decide to try and spiritually shower to clean off it will not be enough to clean us and restore us to the way we might have been before. Only over time after adopting a lifestyle of cleaning oneself can the desired state of cleanliness be achieved. This is why we persevere and press on toward the goal to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. He took hold of us so that we might be the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus and have spiritual intimacy with the almighty God... So that our very hearts might be a temple and a place for the Holy of Holies. So, tend to the garden of your heart and seek to make it a place for the Holy of Holies by diligent bathing through meditation on Him and His word daily. Above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.