Don't quit too soon

Do you practice the spiritual disciplines-  simplicity, fasting, study, submission, meditation – you know, the easy stuff of the Christian life?  Yes, of course, I am joking!  It is not easy to live a disciplined life.  We need to catch sight of the ‘why,’ to understand the potential results of our investment in doing what God asks of us. It’s a process. Our life in Christ must be viewed as a long-term investment!   

 In the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people of the Lord of God’s promises. "If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world." (Deuteronomy 28:1, The Message) "All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe." (Deuteronomy 28:10, The Message) Those promises apply to the Church, just as they did to the people of Israel. When we love and revere the Lord God, when we accept His merciful grace and goodness and invite the Holy Spirit to lead us, we enter into the ‘abundant life’ that Jesus offers to His disciples.

“Jerry, I know Christians who are suffering. I know people who really love the Lord who are going through very tough times.” And, so do I!  The blessings we enjoy when we walk faithfully with God appear over the long term! It’s foolish to ask after a month of living a spiritual disciplined life:  “Where are the blessings?”  Jesus says that hard times, big storms, and terrible times will come to all.  Those, however, who have lived in the disciplines of the Spirit, have a foundation so that they can weather the storm!   “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." (Matthew 7:23-25, NIV) Those who stay faithfully close to the Lord through it all are blessed with a security that reaches into eternity.

As we live the disciplines, we must not become ‘religious’ about them.  If  we turn them into a means of earning God’s favor or proving our goodness, they become Law, controlling us, making us slaves to fear.  In hard times, Christians who have put themselves under the Law will wonder, “What did I do to bring this on myself?”   But, if we see spiritual disciplines as a means of opening our lives to knowing Him, as a way of investing ourselves in Eternity – there is liberty, freedom from slavery to Self, Sin, and Satan.  God’s purpose in the disciplines is to create doors through which His Spirit enters our daily life with profound grace. “We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.”  - Romans 5:1-4  The Message

Disciple, don’t go to church, read the Bible, pray, serve others, give your time or money, …  to make God a debtor to you, owing you His blessings.  Instead, love Jesus! Invest yourself in Him, pursue Him.  Remember that the riches of knowing Him develop in deep character, in a transformed heart, with changed values that release us from the love of the world and set our hearts on Heaven. 

Will we quit too soon?  "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:2-3, NIV)

Here’s a word from the Word.  It’s a principle of investment that applies to the practice of the disciplines.  
"Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God.
What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!— harvests a crop of weeds.
All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds!
But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good.

At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith." (Galatians 6:7-10, The Message)

________

I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

-          Public Domain

An excellent guide to the study of the Disciplines – The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster