Spiritual Stretching = Exercising Faith

James 1:3 – “…for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness”

Guess what is not one of my favorite parts of exercising …. yup, stretching.  I mean, seriously, it is sometimes the most painful part of a workout routine … especially when you have neglected to stretch for a very long time.  As many of you know, the purpose of stretching is to loosen up your muscles so that they become more flexible and therefore help prevent pulled/ torn/ strained muscles.  I have found from personal experience that if I stretch hard before an activity, I can usually run faster, jump higher, move quicker, etc. and I am also less sore after.  If I do not stretch, it is not pretty (especially as I am getting older).

So let’s take the analogy over to the spiritual realm.  I like to think of spiritual stretching as exercising faith.  Exercising faith is when you rely/depend/trust God for something or to do something through you that you cannot do by yourself.  It is stepping out in bold obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit while trusting that God will direct your path/ give you words/ provide the resources/ open doors/ etc.   The reason I liken this to physical stretching is because I believe the results/consequences are very similar.  When you have been consistently exercising faith, you are able to fall to your knees in prayer more easily, jump up out of your comfort zone faster, and respond quickly to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

On the flip side, when you go a long time without exercising faith, you become spiritually stiff – it takes a while for you to get down to your knees in prayer,  you can’t jump out of your comfort zone very easily, and you aren’t able to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as quickly … why? Because your spiritual muscles have become tight and rigid.  You need to stretch your spiritual muscles, I need to stretch my spiritual muscles …. We need to exercise faith.

Worst Blogger Ever

Sooooo …. I have found out that I am probably the worst blogger ever. I had such high aspirations over the last couple of months to blog consistently through a series of posts that would help hold me accountable … and it didn’t happen … obviously.  Well, I have decided that I am not going to make any more promises on my blog, especially after a post like my last one – (you all probably think I am spiritually obese right now since blogging was going to be one of my spiritual exercises – and well, I probably am a little bit and I hope to change that quickly.)

The last couple of months have just absolutely flown by with the birth of our daughter, Addilyn Kaye, on March 11th (see www.derrickandanna.blogspot.com for updates) and the ensuing barrage of family coming to see their precious greatgranddaughter/granddaughter/neice ….  needless to say, it has been a very exciting and fast paced 3 months!  I also finished up probably my most time consuming semester of seminary, and only have a few more classes to take before I am done!  I’m not making excuses for not blogging – there is no excuse because people make time for what they feel is important and I just slacked off.  And I know if I want more people to read my blog besides my mom, I probably need to update a little more consistenly.

So stay tuned!

Feeling Overweight

Although many of my pants have become a bit tighter over the past few months, this isn’t what I am referring to.  Lately, I have been feeling a little bit overweight spiritually.  I feel as though my input far exceeds my output in my Christian life.  For example, being in seminary I have the great opportunity/ requirement to read a lot of books and learn a lot of new things.  On top of that, this semester I am in a preaching class where I get to listen and critique roughly 4 sermons a week (while also getting to preach once every couple of weeks.) Put that on top of the 5-6 sermons I listen to every week as I drive a delivery route, 1 sermon at church on Sunday, 1 small group video teaching per week – it equals out to about 12 sermons/Bible teachings per week that are being inputted into my life.  

I am not saying that this is bad, but sometimes I feel as though I am inputting so much truth and application into my head and heart, that it sometimes seems overwhelming and I’m afraid a lot of it gets lost in the mix and doesn’t get all the way from my head -> to my heart -> to my life.  I am more of a process thinker and I think I really need to prioritize my input so that I am able to process through it better and so that I am actually able to apply it in my daily life.  If the truth I am constantly hearing isn’t really changing the way I live my life, what’s the point – right?  

This is one reason why I believe that blogging will help me get back in good spiritual shape.  It doesn’t really matter if my mom is the only one who reads this:) – I just feel that taking time to type out my thoughts helps me process all of the input, therefore giving me a better chance of having some significant output in my life – and also some accountability, which is not a bad thing at all!  So I see blogging as almost like a spiritual exercise for me, as I process Biblical truth that I hear throughout each week in a written form.  

Next post, I’ll talk about another spiritual exercise that helps me trade some of my spiritual fat for some spiritual muscle.

Sooo … It’s been awhile.

Well, turns out I am not near as consistent at writing blogs as I am at reading them. One of the things I vowed not to do when I started this blog was to open it up and go weeks without updating it – and that is pretty much what I have done. I could make up lots of “reasonable” excuses like: “We’ve been getting ready to have a baby” or “I have some really hard classes that I need to study a lot for” or “My preaching class is kicking my butt” or “I am spending more time on facebook because it seems like everyone (including our grandmother!!) has joined” or … the list could go on and on and while all of these things are true, the bottom line is that people have time to do the things they feel are important to do. Since I feel that blogging is important for me to do for various reasons, I need to make time to blog on a more frequent basis than once a month.

So even though my life is about to change radically with a new baby and I am told that my schedule will be drastically altered during these next few months/years/forever – I am going to commit to get back to blogging. I feel like I need to – Why, you ask?? Well maybe that should be my next post …

Purpose of Life = Reason to Die For

I’ve hadn’t heard this song for awhile until this morning and it just really helped me refocus my perspective and my priorities in life. Read through these lyrics – do you agree? – that you will never know why you are alive until you know what you would die for?? I do. I think it makes perfect sense.

“I Would Die For You” by MercyMe

And I know that I can find You here
‘Cause You promised me You’ll always be there
Times like these, it’s hard to see
But somehow I have a peace, You’re near
And I pray that You will use my life
In whatever way Your name is glorified
Even if surrendering
Means leaving everything behind

My life has never been this clear
Now I know the reason why I’m here
You never know why You’re alive
Until you know what you would die for
I would die for You

And I know I don’t have much to give
But I promise You I will give You all there is
Can I possibly do less
When through Your own death I live?

No greater love is found
Than of those who lay their own lives down
As sure as I live and breathe
Now I know what it means to be free

Some Links from the past few weeks

I promise I will get around to writing a real blog soon – but for now, here is some interesting stuff I’ve found during the past month or so:

// Anybody else as excited as I am about THIS – It’s been 2 years 2 long since the last season.
// Found these interesting statistics back during the election
// This video about Google Maps is hilarious
// Haven’t used this and this yet, but thought they were interesting.
// This is kind of a long video, but you can fast forward through all the talking and still understand what they are showing – it is really cool. Check it out.
// I’m thinking about using this free software this year for my personal finance – see what you think about it.

(not quite) Weekly Lyrics

Great song from Jeremy Camp’s new album.  He has written some great songs about surrender/letting go/giving God control/etc. and I think this has to be one of the more powerful ones.  

Surrender by Jeremy Camp

Purify this tainted soul 
I’m tired of living life a fool 
Soften up this heart in clay 
To be a servant this I pray 
A reflection of You I long to be 
So Your kingdom I will see 

I Surrender to Your throne 
I Surrender to Your throne 
And I will make my heart Your home 
Oh I Surrender to Your throne 

I’ve taken things I’ve thought my own 
Only to reap what I sow 
You’ve given back the years I’ve fought 
An Ending love and grace You brought 
Eternal hope and peace You bring 
And forever unto You I will sing

The Free Servant

1 Peter 2:16 – “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God.”

I think a lot of us have missed the true meaning of freedom. Freedom doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want. True freedom enslaves us. Only when we are enslaved in service to God are we truly free.  That is hard for us to understand, but as Christians we are called into a relationship with the Ultimate Master who loves us unconditionally.  This Master has sacrificed and paid a great price to purchase our lives.  This Master has given us much to be thankful for.   Shouldn’t it be easy to serve a Master like that?

This verse reminded me of how thankful I am to be a servant of the Ultimate Master – and for the true freedom that He gives.  No longer am I forced to be a servant to my sinful nature, but I am now free to be a servant to The Master – and in Him I will find real freedom.

Couple quotes …

- from CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your own ambitions and favourite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life.

 

Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

- author unknown
“I will do today what you won’t, so I can do tomorrow what you can’t.”

more thoughts from A.W. Tozer

So I’m reading some of A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God this week and it is rockin’ my world.  Today the chapter was on “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing” and it used the story of Abraham and Isaac as an illustration which was really powerful.  Very challenging and thought-provoking …. and hopefully life-change provoking.  He writes about the danger of things … and of our human inclination towards possessing them.  It really refocused my perspective – especially appropriate during this time of year.  Here are some of Tozer’s quotes from the chapter that spoke to me:

“There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess.”

“Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended.” 

- regarding Abraham’s relationship with his son, Isaac
“As he watched him grow from babyhodd to young manhood, the heart of the old man was knit closer and closer with the life of his son, till at last the relationship bordered upon the perilous.  It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love.”

- after Abraham’s obedience and God sparing Isaac 
“Now he [Abraham] was a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing … I have said that Abraham possessed nothing.  Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was his still to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and good of every sort.  He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side.  He had everything, but he possessed nothing.  There is the spiritual secret.  There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation.  The books on systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will understand.”

“There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life.  Because it is natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is.  But its outworkings are tragic.”