Beloved,
Last Sunday we considered Paul’s exhortation to be continuously exercising our souls unto the cultivation of Godlikeness (1 Tim. 4:6-10). The apostle is calling young Timothy and each of us to become spiritual athletes who have the strength and stamina of soul necessary to faithfully and lovingly serve Christ unto the advancement of His kingdom. The sermon was intended to whet our appetites for our upcoming adult Sunday school class on private and family worship in which we will be thinking practically and deeply about what in historic lingo have been called the means of grace and in contemporary lingo are often called the spiritual disciplines. While there are manifold ways we can train ourselves for godliness, these are the key means by which we experience communion with Jesus Christ and are transformed into His likeness. So we ought to give ourselves to disciplines like daily meditation on Scripture and prayer.
But if you are anything like me, your tendency is to hear a sermon like Sunday’s and make unrealistic resolutions to get into spiritual shape.
By way of analogy, after talking to Jonathan and Lesley Boyd (our church’s most intense long-distance runners), I might be motivated to get off my rear and start running on a consistent basis. I hear that Jonathan runs an average of 12-15 miles a day, and in my zeal to get in shape I decide I’m going to start doing the same. How do you think that will go for me? I’m not likely to last very long. I’ll either quit or injure myself. Both outcomes will fall short of actually getting into shape. Far better to begin jogging a half mile and to strategically and incrementally build up my endurance, then to try to be like Boyd right out of the shoot.
So too in our spiritual conditioning. Those who set unrealistic goals in the realm of private and family worship often never end up training at all. Instead, they beat themselves up for their failings so that they actually end up in a worse place spiritually than they were when they started. No one becomes a spiritual olympian over night. If you realize you are a couch-potato Christian suffering from serious spiritual flab, don’t resolve to begin reading ten chapters of Scripture and praying for two hours each morning. Start with one chapter (or even one verse) of Scripture and five minutes of prayer, and then over time slowly and incrementally expand your spiritual workout routine. If you are convicted about the need to begin leading your family in spiritual training, don’t strive for 30 minutes of daily family worship with lengthy Bible exposition, prayer, singing, and catechetical memorization. Just begin each night by opening your Bible at the dinner table, reading a few verses, asking a question or two, offering up a simple prayer, and singing the Doxology (all in 5 minutes or less). Be realistic, and as your family grows in spiritual strength and stamina those times with naturally (or rather, supernaturally!) grow too.
In the upcoming weeks, we will be thinking about some of the primary reasons why Christians struggle making private and family worship a consistent and expanding habit in their lives, as well as how to counteract those reasons to establish liturgical rhythms unto the cultivation of a godly and worshipful life. But as a preview of sorts here is one of the greatest reasons for our struggle – unrealistic expectations and resolutions.
So if you were convicted through the preached word on Sunday to hit the spiritual gym, make sure you hit it in a sustainable way wherein you and your family can slowly but surely grow unto the glory of God.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick