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Spiritual Development - October

“The Waiting is the Hardest Part” by David Mathis

Patience is the Virtue – This illusive virtue, then, which corresponds to the dreaded condition of waiting is patience. It is the first thing Paul celebrates about love in 1 Corinthians 13 – “love is patient” (1 Corinthians 13:4) – and one of the most repeated exhortations to church leaders (1 Thessalonians 5:14; 2 Timothy 2:24; 4:2). Eternal life is the possession of “those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality” (Romans 2:7). And patience is a virtue so rare, and of such divine doing, that Paul twice draws on its exercise as a defense of his apostleship (2 Corinthians 6:4-6; 12:12). Patience is the companion of humility and the enemy of pride. “The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). It is the appropriate posture of the creature illumined enough to say, “God is sovereign, and I am not.” And it is not our own production, but “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22; 5:5).

Three Pathways for Cultivating Patience – In the practice of patience is one of the times we most feel the burn of sanctification and the inward groans of the Spirit (Romans 8:23). At times it can seem we’re being conformed to Jesus almost effortlessly; the winds of the Spirit in our sails, as we feed the nourishment of self-forgetfulness. But part of waiting is the conscious hardship. We taste the bitter pill of patience and feel it slither ever so slowly down our throat. It’s not patience when we’re gloriously unaware of the waiting. And so when we feel the burn, we need divine promises in store and a plan of attack. Here are three biblical pathways for cultivating patience in the waiting.

1 Renew Faith and Hope – when you feel the first resistance, let it be a reminder to go Godward. Recalibrate the focus of your faith. Move the weight of your trust off self, where it keeps gravitating back, and consciously reorient on God. Whether it’s simply spare moments or seemingly endless days, waiting is not waste in God’s economy. It is in the delays and the pauses, and in becoming aware of our lack of patience, that he works to save us from self-reliance and revitalize our faith and hope in him. Patience comes with faith (2 Tim. 3:10; Heb. 6:12) – faith for the moment, and hope toward the future. Faith feeds hope, and when, “we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:25).

2 Pray and Give Thanks – Second, let the waiting prompt you to pray. The summons to “be patient in tribulation” is followed with the reminder to “be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). A healthy life of prayer doesn’t necessitate hours each day in the closet, but eyes to see the opportunities in, and a heart to size upon, the unexpected moments and seasons of waiting. And there is a remarkable role for thanksgiving in cultivating “patience with joy.” Paul prays for Christians that they may be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:11-12).

How do we “put on … patience” (Colossians 3:12)? The apostle points us to thanksgiving not once or twice, but three times: Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17) Few things will pass the time as effectively and richly as counting your blessings and naming them to God.

3 Remember the Patience of God – Finally, the pain of waiting can point our hears to the life-saving patience of God. We owe our everything to his kindness and patience with us. “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?’ (Romans 2:4). He was patient when the first man and woman sinned. His “patience waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:20). He was patient with Abraham and patient with Israel. He showed his patience through his prophets (James 5:10). And if he is patent even with “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,” how much more has he shown his patience to us in making known “the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:22-23)? Jesus himself is the climactic display of God’s perfect patience toward sinners (1 Timothy 1:16). He is patent toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) We “count the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Peter 3:15) and bank on his promise, in all our waiting, to “sustain you to the end” (1 Corinthians 1:8).

Spiritual Development - July

“Small Decision Matter: Discernment for Everyday Life” by Ed Welch

Life is in the details. Listen to C.S. Lewis describe how our small day-to-day decisions matter. “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”

While we fret the big decisions – jobs, family changes, retirement – the action is in the endless small ones. This morning, I woke up and had to decide between exercise and a leisurely cup of coffee, I chose coffee. Then other decisions followed. Is it necessary to take a shower and be rushed, or should I rely on the room deodorizer in my office? Do I clean up some of my morning mess, or should I tell my wife I will clean up when I get home, which I probably won’t? And what about reading Scripture? Where will that fit into my day? Ugh, I can hear the refrain about the value of morning devotions in my head. As I make the short drive to work, do I tolerate a little grumbling because I had to stop for a long, slow train, or do I confess my grumbling?

I am only an hour into my day, still on autopilot, and I have yet to get online – then the decisions will really come fast and furious. Hundreds of other judgments and moments of discernment are to come before lunch. Though I am barely aware of them, their cumulative effect is what constitutes my personal character – they are me – and the judgments will affect many others.

To be human is to make judgments and choose one way over another. The story of Eden announced this essential feature of our humanity when the Lord taught us to be discerning about how to live near one particular tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So it began. This way or that way? Right in God’s eyes or right in our own eyes? Two paths. One is self-destructive; one is filled with life. Our lives are now brimming with daily judgements of ourselves and our world. These judgments determine our course and carry eternal consequences.

The distinctions we make between good and evil are paramount. Scripture pleads with us to be alert to these decision points. And then there are micro distinctions we must make between what is good and what is better, what is bad and what is worse. In the best of times, all of these decision points have their challenges. But add human desire, and the once obvious distinctions between good and evil become blurred or even overturned, as evil is judged as good. Who among us can walk in wisdom?

Yet this is the age when Jesus, the second Adam, was tempted in the wilderness and rightly discerned the difference between good and evil. Now, as we trust in our champion and his power, we can come alive to the seemingly incomprehensible and impossible task of careful discernment.

The apostle Paul warned us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16). When we look carefully, two paths always come into view. We want to be skillful enough to see the wise path of life and then take it.

So I slow down and begin where I am. I ask for grace to look carefully, to discern wisely. I remember the common warning signs that inevitably precede my foolishness, and I set some small goals for the evening.

Warning signs to keep in mind
1. Careful decisions take work. I can be lazy. Wake up.
2. Watch for hints of grumbling or defensiveness. These are sure signs that my commitment to godly discernment has diminished.

Good small steps
1. I want to be patient and kind to the person in front of me. Be a servant. I don’t have to be right.
2. I will prepare my thoughts for my wife on the ride home. What were the high points of my day? The challenges?

Lord God, I want to be more awake. I want to see what is good; I want to see what is empty and lifeless. I want to be discerning in the details. Please, today, now, give grace so I can walk carefully.