Brothers and Sisters,
Please forgive the drought of daily encouragement. The good news is that over the past months I finished up my CPA. I have no love for accounting, so it was a beating, but this was requested by my employer, so it’s done. The bad news is that it has proven more taxing on my spiritual life than even I had imagined. At the same time, one of the downsides to doing a good job at work is that people give you more and more work to do, so that is presenting a challenge as well. I do have plans to get back into and finish Romans, but I wanted to take today to talk about how to talk about something that is close to my own heart today – how to rebuild and maintain spiritual momentum.
If you are like me, you see pastors week in and week out preaching the truth of God’s Word, and it may seem like they are on another level than each of us spiritually. It may seem like the struggles and doubts that we all encounter as followers of Christ are not experienced by our spiritual leaders or other Christians around us. That is simply not true. We see stuggle in the heart of Paul who scribed much of the New Testament and whose missionary efforts help found much of the early (NT) Church. We have been forgiven in Christ, but until we are with Him, we are living in a fallen world and with fleshly bodies with indwelling sin subject to temptation. (Romans 7:16-25)
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells and then explains a parable of a man sowing seed in a field: vs 4-8 – “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty”
vs 18-23 – “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Many of us would not fall into the first category, although that is not to say that this message would not be helpful to that group of people. Many of us (All of us, I would argue) will have times where we may ask ourselves if we are to be numbered among the second and third groups. We have received the gospel, we have responded in joy at the love of Christ, we have been growing in our fellowship with Christ, and then something happens. Maybe there is a tragic death around us, maybe someone close to us has a crippling disease or accident. Maybe we lose our job and don’t know how we’re going to make it financially. Maybe we allow a good desire, such as becoming a CPA to honor our employers wishes, to become an end, instead of the means of honoring Christ, evidenced by a lack of personal fellowship with Christ and ministry. Maybe we have been growing in fellowship with Christ, but there is still some sin in our life that we haven’t let go of, and now it is threatening to choke off our growth in Christ. Maybe there is a temptation to pursue a new job or new material possessions that ultimately we don’t need, and are unhelpful to growing fellowship with Christ. This list could go on, but I am confident I don’t need to tell you how many different ways we can allow sin and the cares of this world to derail us from our fellowship with Christ.
My encouragement today is that just because you may be struggling through something today, doesn’t mean you have to stay there. God has plans for you to be fruitful in encouraging others’ faith and sharing the gospel for salvation, and even these current struggles will be used by God to that end. What I want to say/remind you of is that what you may see in Spiritual leaders is not an absence of struggle, but people who take full advantage of every means of grace given by God to maintain their spiritual momentum; ex: meeting often with other Christians to talk about life and encouraging one another in the gospel of Jesus Christ, hearing Biblical preaching, taking communion, fellowship with God in nature, ministry, fellowship with God by reading His Word and prayer, and fasting to name a few. Every Christian is at risk of falling away from their faith, but God uses means to call those whom He loves back to Himself continually, and their faith is even stronger for having gone through the struggle. On a personal level, I want to remind each of you, that God loves you. If you are really struggling in your faith, none of what you’re going through today is a surprise to God, He has known you completely – your past, present, and future, and He redeemed you fully on the cross through Christ. He had you in mind before the foundation of the world as an object of His love – to redeem you to Himself.
Ephesians 1:3-9 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ”
So, if you are not where you would like to be in your fellowship with Christ, how do you start rebuilding momentum?
1) Tell a fellow brother or sister in Christ (preferably more than 1) exactly how you feel and what is going on with you. Remember that we are told of a spiritual gift of discernment, but not of mind reading! One of God’s primary means of encouraging the faith of believers is through the community of saints. Simply put, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ cannot help encourage you well if they do not know how you need to be encouraged. If you’re worried about being judged, you’re valuing the opinion/potential judgment of a fellow sinner more than you are the opinion/fellowship of God. That is a poor trade.
2) Take an inventory of your life. This can be as quick as 5 minutes or an all day introspection. What things in your life are driving you? How are those things helping to grow your joy in relationship with Christ? If what’s driving you is not helping grow you fellowship with Christ, should you be allowing those things to drive you? Our hearts can be deceitful, so I would also encourage talking this over with a fellow brother or sister in Christ.
3) Begin to walk in step with the Spirit. Most Christians are either trying to run in front of the Spirit of God or are standing still in the hardness of their heart/sin. Each day is going to come with enough worry of its own – most of us don’t need to make huge changes to our life to follow Christ. Much of following Christ is in the simple day to day choices. Should I spend time with Christ in His Word today? Yes, but you don’t have to start reading 2 hours a day and comitting to 4 hours of prayer in the morning. Just take a step to spend some time with Christ each day, and allow God to guide you from there. Should you go to Church and be involved in community? Yes, but you don’t have to be involved in every ministry or occupy yourself fully 7 days a week. Just take a step to have people really start to know you, and meet up with them for a meal or coffee outside of church, and allow God to guide you from there.
Each of us needs to continually breath life into our faith. (2 Tim 1:6). Each of us needs to be encouraged daily by others. (Heb 10:24-25) Each of us have been promised trials and sufferings as Christians (Jam 1), but in persevering we have been promised the treasure of Christ for eternity. There will be a day where these struggles are no more, when the span of our life seems like the blink of an eye, where our joy in perfect fellowship with Christ is so great that it must be sung for all eternity. I would encourage you to set your mind on these things (Col 3:2) that you would put other things in right perspective. Know that you’re loved and prayed for – if you’ve read this far and have been encouraged even a little bit, I would encourage you to consider your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and seek out ways to encourage one of them today in the gospel. Grace be with you.
Following the Way 