LIFE in the Truth ought to be the most satisfying and fulfilling way of life available to anyone living on this planet. That's a bold statement to start with. To substantiate it, let's begin by thinking for a moment of some of the things people generally agree go together to make a satisfying and fulfilling life. These are not in order of merit.
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In
most people's minds these ten items add up to a satisfying and fulfilling life.
It's sad how few people actually achieve even half of them. They fail to balance
it out in most cases. That's why I was careful to say for the last item:
Enjoyment that doesn't rob us of any of the above. So often people go for
an enjoyment, or the extreme of an enjoyment, that will cancel out one or more
of the other vital factors for a successful life.
The man who enjoys living just for the
moment is likely to wake up one morning feeling his life has no sense of
purpose, which could in turn affect his emotional and mental health with the
onset of depression. The woman who goes for the enjoyment of an extra-marital
affair drives a steam-roller through the relationships department of her life.
The man who enjoys gambling may not have sufficient money to pay for
necessities. And in many other smaller and bigger ways people mess things up for
themselves and fail to live satisfying lives.
But
to achieve all ten of those items (or a good percentage of them), the remarkable
truth is that you don't have to strive for them all. You don't in fact have to strive
for any of them. You have to concentrate on one thing only. All you need
to focus your attention on is your spiritual life.
Read, discover, believe and, most
importantly, be permanently filled with the following spiritual truths: that you
can cast all your cares upon God because He cares for you (1 Pet.5:7);
that if you spend your time looking for righteousness and the way to the Kingdom
of God you don't have to worry about having sufficient food and clothing, these
things will come (Matt.6:33); that God knows all the things you have need of,
whatever they are, before you even ask Him about them (Matt.6:8) because He
keeps a very close watch over you (Matt.10:30,31); that all things work
together for good in the lives of those who pay attention to their spiritual
life (Rom.8:28).
Once these truths take root you're well on your way to attaining everything you need for a satisfying and fulfilling life. Because those very needs are fulfilled as a by-product of the spiritual life. As is sometimes said of happiness: you don't achieve it by directly striving for it, it generally comes as a by-product of doing other things. The pursuit of happiness puts happiness forever in the future. Be like the wise old tomcat who realizes that when he stops chasing his tail it follows him around anyway. Don't chase after all the things you think will bring happiness; simply focus on your spiritual life and those things will take care of themselves–– and the happiness will follow.
"One thing is needful," said Jesus.
"This one thing I do," said Paul
In
Luke 10:38-42 Jesus said to Martha that she was "careful and troubled
about many things" she reckoned were
of great importance. She was busy in the kitchen getting food ready for Christ
and his disciples who'd just descended on the house. But her sister Mary was
eager first of all to know about spiritual things. Rather than disappear into
the kitchen, Mary grasped the opportunity to listen to the Truth from the lips
of Jesus. Preparing food could wait ––this was an unmissable experience!
She chose the one thing that was needful, and Jesus told her so.
I'm not saying that everyday
chores should be ignored. That you should let your house turn into a dump, and
give up feeding the children, just so that you can spend your whole time soaking
up spiritual truths. I'm sure that wasn't the extreme lesson Jesus was trying to
teach Martha.
The lesson is surely that we
can trust God that the mundane things will fall into place if we put spiritual
matters first. Martha felt that if
she didn't get on with preparing the food then nothing would get done. "I
haven't got time to sit around talking!" She thought it was vital that the
meal was organised immediately. No it wasn't! They wouldn't starve. Somehow they
would all have eaten. A little late maybe, but so what! Martha might starve,
however, of needful spiritual food if she continued to busy herself with chores
at the expense of her spirituality.
How could anyone pass up a
unique opportunity to hear the wisdom of the Master himself in order to slice
bread or cook meat! Imagine having
Jesus himself in your front room talking about the meaning of life, and you go
off and get busy in the kitchen! If you could let such an opportunity as that
slip, what would it say about your general enthusiasm for spiritual things? What
did it say about Martha's? She had a wrong attitude. She was never going to find
fulfilment in life by relegating her spirituality to second place behind the
daily grind. So many people say they are too busy for God. So many people are
unhappy! And often they keep busy to avoid facing the fact that they are
unhappy. To break free, just one thing is needful. The Marthas (and their male
equivalents) need to pay attention to their spiritual life.
Always it can be said, whatever the
situation, "one thing is needful"– trust in God. Lesser
matters will fall into place. And remember, everything else is a lesser
matter.
In
Philippians 3:13,14 Paul said, "This one thing I do ... I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Spiritual
health was Paul's primary aim in life. Not, of course, that he never did
anything else. He travelled, he wrote letters, he even found time to make tents,
and did a lot of other things besides. But everything else he did was secondary
to the over-ruling passion of his life. The one thing that he did above all else
was give attention to his spiritual life.
Therefore we say that life in the
Truth, the spiritual life, ought to be the most satisfying and fulfilling
life for any man or woman. God, who created us and continually sustains us,
teaches us by His Word how best to live the life He has given us.
The Bible is the Book of how to do
it––for life. Because like most things there's a right way and a wrong way
to do it, a safe way and a dangerous way.
When
you're driving a car you keep to the instruction book called the Highway Code
(well, hopefully you do!). If you have any sense you don't drive regardless of
it, saying to yourself: "Why should I stop at red lights?––I'm going to
ignore them. I don't have to stop! Nobody tells me what to do."
BANG! You stop. You have
hit another car.
The
Bible has a lot of 'red lights' in it. They are all those Thou shalt nots
and don't do this and thats. They are
there for our safety and protection. But they make a lot of people dislike God's
Word. "It's so full of restrictions."
How
come so very few people take the same attitude to the Highway Code? You don't
hear people saying, "I can't take it, it's so full of don'ts: Don't cross
red lights, don't pull out without looking, don't park on crossings." We know
these don'ts are there for our own safety and the safety of others. And so it is
with all the don'ts in the Bible. You can go through a whole lot of Bible red
lights, ignoring them cavalier fashion. You'll probably be 'lucky' for a while
and get away with it. You'll have a few near misses and might even think it
quite exciting. But as sure as
'eggs is eggs' your 'luck' will run out one day, and, BANG!––you're
in serious trouble.
Bible
don'ts are the red lights put there for our safety. But there are a whole lot of
green lights in the Bible, too. In fact all the aspects of the fruit of the
Spirit are green lights. It tells us so, right there in Galatians 5:23 where the
fruit is detailed that these are things "against which there
is no law." There's no law against peace, joy, faith,
and all the others. All green lights. Do these. It's safe for you to go this
way.
The
One who authored the instruction book knows. The One who created us knows the
best way for us to go. He tells us in His Word how best to live the lives He has
given us. And we can prove that to
ourselves by learning and living what His Word has to teach us. We're not left
to muddle through this life in frustration and ignorance, living "lives
of quiet desperation," to quote the words of Henry Thoreau, which he
said, "the mass of men lead." Life is meant to be a whole lot
better than that!
You
can have all that is necessary for a satisfying life when you follow the way of
the Spirit.
But there's a catch––or at least
what seems to be a catch. It's more of a rider really. We had to emphasize that
word ought when we said earlier that life in the Truth ought to be
the most satisfying way of life. Because often, in conversation with fellow
believers, one gets the distinct impression that they don't feel too overjoyed
about their life in the Truth much of the time. Sometimes they say
bluntly that life is giving them too many hard knocks. So what has gone wrong?
And why do so many believers seem to live well below their spiritual potential?
The two main reasons I've come across
(to be honest, experienced!) are the problem of trials, and
the problem of vagueness about spiritual development.
Trials are the "catch" or
rider I mentioned earlier. While it's true that God says He will do many things
to help those who seriously pursue the spiritual path through life, the rider is
that He will also test everyone who travels that path. "For whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure
chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the
father chasteneth not?" (Heb.12:6,7).
We don't take too well to chastening,
do we? We didn't like it when our parents inflicted it on us "for your own
good" when we were children, and quite naturally we react against it when
our Heavenly Father inflicts it when we become His children. We doubted that it
was really all for our own good when our parents did it; we suspected that it
was sometimes done for their good! If they dealt sharply with us, they
had a quieter life, because we were put in our place. The writer of the letter
to the Hebrews makes this very point: "For they [our parents] for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he [God] for our profit, that we
might be partakers of his holiness."
We will be tested with problems and difficulties. And these tests will always hit us in one or more of those ten items we mentioned earlier that go to make a satisfying life. What's more, the test will probably hit us where it hurts the most. For the indications are that God tests believers through the very things they prize the most: sufficient money perhaps, or health, or self-esteem. There's a case in the New Testament (Luke 18:18-23) where this principle comes to light. A man described as a rich young ruler went to Christ and asked what he should do to inherit eternal life.
This ruler was already keeping the commandments, or so he claimed, yet he
felt he lacked something. Or perhaps, which is likely, he wanted to know what
new thing Jesus was teaching that he should do over and above what the Law of
Moses already required of him. Wasn't that Law enough? Was Jesus saying he
needed more than that? The young man said he already kept all the commandments
of the Law. So what did he lack? As expected, Jesus went instantly to the heart
of the matter. "Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and
distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come,
follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very
rich" (Luke 18:22,23).
The man was already on the spiritual
path. He was observing the law, and we assume he made a genuine enquiry of
Jesus, but there was an area of his life in which he was vulnerable. He lacked one
thing which was needful: a truly full commitment to
the spiritual path.
He had not yet faced an unpleasant
truth about himself, that his wealth was more important than his spirituality.
All the while he had everything he needed, he felt secure in his religion. But
if his religion made demands that might be fatal to his wealth, he would rather
side with his wealth. He believed that to lose his money was more than he could
cope with. It wasn't of course, and Jesus would not have suggested he part with
it if it were completely out of the question. We don't know how the story ended.
The last we see of the man is his droopy-shouldered departure from Jesus. I like
to think that God later re-tested him in this area of his wealth, and proved to
him that he could cope: that he found treasure in heaven when he got his
priorities straightened out––and was not exactly destitute as a result, as
he feared.
Don't misunderstand me. We don't all
have to give everything we have to the poor in order to follow the spiritual
path. The point being made is that we are better off doing without whatever
blocks our progress along the path. The man's attachment to his wealth was the
problem, not the wealth itself. Your problem may not be wealth, even if you have
it. You may need testing in an entirely different area.
God
certainly tests believers, and this is one reason why many believers are less
than content with life in the Truth. So often, I'm sure, we fail to learn the
lesson that comes to us. So often we don't see the problem on our path as a test
from God, but think of it instead as just one of life's hard knocks that we have
to suffer and that drags us down. So we don't rise above it.
We don't learn anything about ourselves––except, perhaps, that we're
pretty useless at trying to live the Truth, which is not what God is attempting
to show us! Consequently there is no spiritual development, no fruit of the
Spirit; there is only complaint and dissatisfaction.
The key verses on this subject of our
trials are Hebrews 12:11-13:
"Now
no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way; but let it rather be healed."
All the turmoil and mental agitation
of our trials, whatever they are, could give way to the peaceable (peaceful)
fruit of righteousness, if only we would allow that to happen. If,
instead of feeling sorry for ourselves and dispirited about life's set-backs
(with our hands hanging dejectedly and our knees too feeble to move us ahead),
we would only lift up those hands in prayer, and lift those knees (a figurative
way of describing getting going along the spiritual path), then we would be
healed, and not lame.
Our
present problems can seem like a rough and difficult road that we are stuck on.
Spiritually, our knees are feeble and we're in danger of going lame as we tramp
along this unfriendly terrain. That's how life seems sometimes, and we might
even say, or feel like saying. "I can't go on." The way looks too
hard.
But
the answer is in our own hands (and feet). It is for us (and nobody else!) to
"make straight the path of [our] feet." We have to take
responsibility for our own spiritual progress. (It's not up to God to drag us
along and make us develop spiritually.) The verses in Hebrews tell us we
can do this by being rightly exercised by our problems. And how apt to say that
our lameness and feebleness will be cured by exercise.
The
spiritual muscle is like any other muscle in the body in the important sense
that if we hardly use it, it becomes feeble and useless, and needs exercise to
get it back into shape. People off their feet in hospital for long periods need
to get the strength back in their legs before they can walk confidently. Unused
muscles need exercise, or they may eventually atrophy and become totally
useless.
The problems God puts our way are to strengthen our spiritual muscle, not weaken it. God will pick out the areas in our lives that need attention and send something to build us up in those areas. If we let the problems exercise us correctly, the outcome will be good. Undoubtedly.
The trouble is that we have a tendency to go lame when we hit rough patches. We don't allow ourselves to be exercised by them. We so easily let the hard times shake our faith instead of firming it up. But that's never God's intention for us when he tests and chastens us. His intention is that we should develop and grow spiritually. That we should in fact develop the fruit of the Spirit. And one of the aspects of the fruit is mentioned right there in those verses from Hebrews 12.
If
we are exercised rightly by the chastening of the Lord "it yieldeth the
peaceable [peaceful] fruit of righteousness." Righteousness means being
right with God––which brings peace.
So the outcome of accepting
the difficulties we face in life in the right spirit (spirit equals attitude
here) is peace. Which makes perfect sense, doesn't it? If we see the hand of God
in our problems, they cease, in reality, to be problems. They become exercises
for learning, for strengthening our spiritual muscle. The Lord's chastening
leads us, in fact, to develop the fruit of the Spirit.
Only peace is mentioned in
those verses from Hebrews, but other aspects of the fruit will also be
developed.
...Just think of the benefits
of peace alone! So many people lack true peace in their lives in this age
of anxiety. Having just that one aspect of the fruit will bring with it many of
those things which most people agree are necessary for a fulfilled and
satisfying life. Peace alone brings good emotional and mental health, which
often leads to better physical health, which in turn makes us better able to
enjoy life, to earn our living, and have other necessary things.
One thing is needful. Get the
spiritual side of life right, and no matter what comes your way, good or 'bad',
you'll see that it has God in it, and so it can't really be bad. You'll be able
to handle it. It may not go away, but you'll be able to handle it. You'll be
rightly exercised by it. And you'll discover you have all you need for a
satisfying life. Keep in mind that the Bible says "all things work together
for good" in the life of a believer, not that all things are
good.
The
other day I was walking home from the office and saw a young man in a wheelchair
ahead of me on the path. He was moving slowly because of the incline and I soon
caught up. As I passed by I saw how hard he was working with his arms to keep
the wheelchair going. I wondered if I should help.
A short way ahead I turned and looked
back to see how he was doing. The path was getting steeper and he was hardly
moving forward at all. The wheelchair was going more from side to side than
forwards. The young man was obviously struggling. I couldn't just walk off and
leave him puffing his heart out! So I walked back and said, "Can I give you a push up
this steep bit?"
To my amazement he looked up, smiled,
and between breaths said, "No thanks. This is good exercise."
Good exercise! I could hardly
believe it. He was having a really tough time moving that chair up that slope.
It looked like torture. But to him it was just "good exercise". He was
actually enjoying himself!
What a good way that is to be about
life. In fact, it's the only way for a true believer to be about life. Not to
moan and complain when things are hard, but to smile and see them as good
exercise. Does that sound impossible to you? Well, it isn't. The Apostle Paul wrote in one of his letters
about "glorying in tribulations" (Rom.5:3). That means being happy
even when things are hard. Paul could be happy when life was difficult (as it
certainly was sometimes) because he trusted that God was always with him. As he
saw it, he didn't really have anything to worry about. All believers need to
have that same truth engraved on their hearts. Whatever happens, God will look
after us and see us through. For us
there are no events over which God does not have control, and nothing that is
truly bad can happen to us. The 'bad' is merely "good exercise".
We
said there were two reasons why believers often live below their spiritual
capabilities. One is that we don't learn from our problems, and we let them sap
our spiritual and physical energy. The other is that we go through
life with only a vague notion of what
spiritual development is.
As
a consequence we don't commit ourselves strongly enough to it. We blithely mark
time in the Truth, thinking that just being in the Truth is all that
matters. But it's not having the Truth that counts, it's what you do with
it when you've got it! The transfer from being "in Adam" to being
"in Christ" is only a transfer, it's not a transformation! The
transformation of our character happens slowly afterwards, as we continue to
apply our minds to spiritual things in a purposeful way—or it doesn't happen
because we don't. Therefore we stagnate spiritually—and find life in the Truth
rather less than fulfilling.
This
transformation of our character is the development of the fruit of the Spirit.
It's as simple as that. And once we know that, we know what we're aiming for.
Spiritual development ceases to be vague. It is the process of bringing the nine
aspects of the fruit of the Spirit into our character.
And
as we involve ourselves in this process, we learn one of life's greatest
lessons. A God-given law of life comes into operation. We learn, as the fruit of
the Spirit develops, that we can more easily handle the tests God puts our way.
We lose those old feelings of stagnation, of being spiritually becalmed, that we
may have had before. We lose any dissatisfaction with life in the Truth that
being vague about our spiritual direction generates. We arrive at the wonderful
conclusion that life in the Truth is the most satisfying and fulfilling
way of life available to anyone living on this planet.
Hopefully, your journey through this
book will help reinforce that conclusion for you. Or help you towards it.
There is one final point I must make
about spiritual living before closing this chapter. It is true that God looks
after us when we focus on the one thing that is needful. But there is a school
of thought that goes a lot further, and claims that the spiritual life will
bring all sorts of superabundance into our lives––NOW!
This is known as Prosperity Theology.
The claim is that if we can get ourselves rightly attuned to God's will for us,
He will shower us with blessings, make us super rich, super
healthy, super attractive, super confident.
The idea that following God will turn
you into superman or superwoman is very appealing. But it has more to do with
the American Dream than the promises of God. It's the message of many of the
television evangelists of America and Canada—the sort of people who are now
starting up television channels over here. And they seem to be getting a
following in certain sections of the church.
It's as if the religion of the Bible
had fallen into the hands of a clever advertising agency who'd seen a better way
to market Christianity. Which probably isn't too wide of the mark. The message
is: if you want to do well for yourself, be the sort of person you always
dreamed of being, then Christianity is your answer. GOD WANTS YOU RICH is the
sort of banner it marches under.
Like all the best untruths, like all
the most appealing lies, there is an element of truth in it. Undoubtedly, our
quality of life is greatly improved by the addition of a spiritual dimension,
but we should not be looking for superstar status.
The satisfying and fulfilling life the Scriptures promise us now is not in that direction. True satisfaction and fulfilment are rarely found that way. That's why when I listed the ten things that go to make up the truly good life, I said sufficient food and money, good health and relationships etc., not SUPER-ABUNDANT! and EXCELLENT!
Producing the fruit of the
Spirit—the all-round Christian character—will not make us super-people
with everything we ever dreamed of, but it will make us NORMAL PEOPLE.
"Ah," I hear you say politely, a little unimpressed. "What's so
good about being normal?" What encouragement is there for me to gain the
fruit of the Spirit if all it does for me is make me normal? Who wants to be
just plain normal? Doesn't
everyone want to be special?
I happen to have a passion for
normality. I think the normal should be pursued with great fervour. In fact I'd
like us all to be excessively normal. This is because I believe, on the
basis of what the Bible says, that normal is an awful lot more than most
people experience. The majority of people undoubtedly operate below what God
intended as normal for us.
One of the Proverbs says: "Give
me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be
full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and
take the name of my God in vain" (Prov.30:8,9). This applies to more things
in life than money and food. This is the norm. This is what the fruit of the
Spirit is geared to. Not lack, not superabundance, but sufficiency. And we can
be certain that what God sees as sufficient will not be penny-pinching.
God, I'm sure, would love to shower us
with unlimited blessings. He knows how to give good gifts to His children. And
He gives us as much as He safely can without creating problems for us, without
giving us things that will mis-shape our characters. As Jesus said: "What
man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or
if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?" (Matt.7:9,10 RAV). So
why should we expect any less from our loving Father? The true version of normal
is well above the subsistence levels in most areas of life––well above what
passes for normal!
So I am all for being normal. Not so
over-blessed in my wealth, possessions, wit, charm and abilities (no problems
here, so far), that I forget my God; not so under-blessed that I carp and whinge
at life's bad breaks, forgetting and cursing God in the process.
The fruit of the Spirit will not turn
us into super people, the envy of the neighbours and toast of the town,
but it will turn us into normal people in the sight of God.
So why be less than normal? Normal is,
in fact, rather special. To be normal is to be extremely successful. It might
even include material success– abundance in some aspects of life– but that
isn't the purpose of travelling the spiritual path. It may come as a by-product
of pursuing the real satisfaction and fulfilment that the one thing that is
needful brings. Then again, material success may even come as a trial.
I know it's an old cliché that wealth
doesn't bring happiness, but that makes it no less true. The casualties of
success are legion. The 'successful' have everything––
including an aching void that says, "Is this all there
is?" And unless they have something other than, and better than,
wealth and success, they are doomed to enjoy neither.
Far better to make the finest qualities of character your goal in the first place. Go for what is normal, not what appears to be super normal. This book is not about becoming a superstar through Prosperity Theology. It's a book for those who aspire to achieve normality with God. Such unusually wise people will one day "shine as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan.12:3).