ROUTINE ACTS OF DEVOTION

“But as for you… pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”  (1 Timothy 6:11-12 NRSV)

A few years ago we started a praise band at church. In that context commitment took over where my desire has always tended to fall short. Simply put, I placed myself and my Ovation [guitar] in a position of discipline and encouragement, and my ability to play has grown accordingly.

It turns out my faith is a lot like that.

Being a disciple of Jesus is much like playing guitar in the band. While desire may be the spark that ignites the fire, my spiritual journey flames out with relative ease – all too readily and distressingly quickly. My love for God can also find its way into the closet, and there it gathers dust; God does not force His presence on me any more than my neglected instrument will leap into my hands to say, “Let’s play.”

There’s a lot to be said for showing up to play music with the band every week, for picking up my guitar every day, and for running through even the simplest songs of praise. In the middle of such routine acts of devotion, I often find that God’s love sneaks up on me unawares.

It’s that “long obedience in the same direction” idea. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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PLEASING WORSHIP

Paul writes, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy [because of all that Jesus has done for us through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross], to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship.”  (Romans 12:1, AMP).

It is a good thing for corporate worship to become part of the weekly routine of the Christian. However, the fact that worship becomes routine and regular tempts us to be distracted during worship and to go through the motions without putting much thought into it. Therefore, we must work as hard as we can to make sure that our hearts and minds are in our praise, that every aspect of worship is “a fragrant offering, pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:2) Let us focus entirely on the Lord as we “worship Him in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:24) 

-- Adapted from Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R. C. Sproul

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FITNESS TRAINING FOR THE NEW YEAR

"Physical training is of some value," Paul tells us in I Timothy 4:8, "but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

My guess is that our hopes and resolutions for the New Year are quite similar. Like myself, many of you have probably committed to dieting, making better use of your long neglected gym membership and reestablishing a quiet time with God. Our commitments to dieting and gym membership require elaborate preparations and consistent training. After all, we must not only choose our diet, but we must train ourselves to stay away from sweets or that extra serving of mashed potatoes. Similarly, we must not only carve out time in our schedule for the gym, we must commit ourselves to, and stick with, a rigorous training schedule.

Unfortunately, when it comes to our spiritual fitness, we often fail to make any specific preparations at all. So, while we try to spend more time in prayer, we fail to schedule time to be on our knees. Likewise, although we would like to explore fasting, we fail to train ourselves to sustain a fast. While we try to read the Bible, we fail to place ourselves in a small group Bible study that will hold us accountable. If you are like me, you know that trying often gets us nowhere. As John Ortberg teaches so clearly in "The Life You've Always Wanted", if we want to grow into godliness we need to "stop trying and start training." We need to train ourselves in godliness. Spiritual practices and disciplines will help us to grow in the godliness that holds "promise for both the present life and the life to come." 

-- Adapted from the Christian Living Newsletter from Christianbook.com 


SPIRITUAL FITNESS NOTE: If you know of someone like you who would like to be part of a daily spiritual fitness routine this year, encourage them to follow this blog, find us on Facebook, or subscribe via e-mail.


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EACH NEW DAY

"This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24 NIV)

EACH NEW DAY arrives with an endless array of possibilities just waiting for the chance  for God to make a difference in your life.

EACH NEW DAY promises to give you all the best God has to offer and every chance to make His plans come to fruition in your life.

EACH NEW DAY contains numerous situations -- the highs, the lows, the routine -- for God to show up and photo-bomb your life.

AND EACH NEW DAY is a new opportunity for you to show up in someone else's life and to share the love of God in Christ with them.

-- David T. Wilkinson

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OATMEAL DAYS

It's not always the red-flag crisis days that are hardest to take. It's the "oatmeal days." The ordinary, "zero" days of little or no consequence. The ho-hum days filled with nothing of any particular interest. Colorless. Uninteresting. Unfascinating. Unspectacular. And unfun. The days everyone deals with.

We cope. We wend our way through the tangle of tedious activity and sandpaper people scattered through our day and get applause, because coping is expected.

Not so during the red-flag crisis times. People tend to rally behind us with loving support. We're lifted above the crisis and enabled beyond human comprehension at times.

On oatmeal days, after a crisis has peaked, it may seem as if friends have forsaken us, as if God doesn't care. But the reality will be that life has merely pushed us and our friends one step further in the Christian growth-walk.

The God of the crisis times is the God of oatmeal days, too. Because He said He is. Because He keeps His promises -- always. Because we can't get along without Him. And because we wouldn't want to if we could.

-- Unknown, quoted by Barbara Johnson in So, Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy!

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