Walk in the life God gives…

 Today’s reading begins with an exhortation to give up all efforts to grow and simply let yourself grow. Leave it all to Jesus whose care it is, and who alone is able to manage it. Put yourself into His hands and let Him have His own way with you.

While this is true — that Jesus does the work, resting in Him does not eliminate spiritual disciplines, at least those rightly motivated. This devotional writer is not telling me to give up reading Scripture, worship, fellowship with other Christians, prayer, and so on. This exhortation is about self-effort and that frantic or pride-filled idea that I ‘must’ do this or that so I will grow.

Spiritual disciplines do not make me grow. I’ve sometimes called them places of grace. They are like getting in the shower if I need to clean up, not standing outside of it trying to take the dirt with my own hands. They are not self-effort with psychological gimmicks to get rid of guilt or reading how-to books to be well-liked. Instead, these disciplines are being where I need to be so God can do His work of changing my life.

Some of these involve actual places, such as going to church and being with like-minded believers, but most of them involve action or lack of action, such as Bible study, prayer, confession, and silence, fasting, and sacrifice. These are not motivated by ‘doing my duty’ but by wanting to love God and be closer to Him. As I do that, I know Him more as He is — and myself more as I am. This leads to conviction and confession, but also forgiveness and cleansing.

Even the OT, with its focus on God’s laws, has God’s gracious promises to His people when we have stoped growing. He says:

I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. (Hosea 14:4–7)

Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield. “Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. “The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. (Joel 2:22–25)

I cannot ‘earn’ these benefits but I can block them by running away from God and by refusing to unwrap the gifts that He gives me in my new life as His child. In that life is rest and growth without effort, yet crowned with glorious results.

PRAY: Choosing spiritual disciplines sounds like giving up ‘fun’ but that is not true. Jesus, being with You and motivated by the things You put in my heart to think, say, and do gives me an abundant life, a life of rest and trust, but also of surprise and adventure. I am humbled by things like pink tulips and well-timed phone calls, but those are only two examples of the many blessings You give. You are an incredible Shepherd and manager of my soul and the giver of peace and deep joy. You have changed my idea of what that word ‘discipline’ really means!