As I listened to Aaron’s message today, I found myself at certain
moments wanting to jump up and down, wave a huge neon-lit exclamation point
high in the air, chanting “Yes! Yes!” I greatly resonated with his conviction
that it’s not our resolves of self-driven efforts that will bring lasting
change into our lives, but the frequent practice of habits driven by a heart
moved with love, gratitude, and joy in what God had and is doing in our lives. The
shift is from simply resolving to do good, to practicing habits that become
virtues as they become embedded in our lives.
Quick question:
name a place where you can practice these things on a regular, weekly basis. I
have a big one for you: a small group.
As you engage with others around that table or living room; share your stories,
your struggles, your failures and pain; ask for prayer while praying for others—you
are weaving the habit of deepening and sharpening your faith while anchoring it
into the steady rhythm of your schedule. Not only that—by your willingness to
carve out time and space in real time to practice your faith with others, you
are securing a presence in both your private world AND public world to your Biblical
values and convictions.
Did you know that in large part, the commands of Jesus Christ in the New Testament are relationship-based commands? Do an exhaustive read, and you’ll find twenty-one commands of things we are to practice (love, serve, encourage, forgive), and ten commands of things to avoid doing (slander, criticize)–all within the context of relating to others. Every writer of the New Testament includes a few in their letters to churches or people.
It’s hard to love when you’re isolated from people and live in your own bubble world. It’s tough to honor others when you have nobody to practice that on. It’s easy to accept others when it’s in the theoretical imaginations of your mind; but doing it with real people and personalities gets much, much tougher. Serving is easy and convenient when nobody is connected enough to you relationally to make it inconvenient and sacrificial to your preferences.
This is why I believe so firmly in our growth group ministry. It is the laboratory where you can practice the things you learn in a class at Living Word, or read in scriptures on your own. Remember in college when you had a class that had a laboratory connected to it as part of the requirements? You’d go to class, learn the information, then head to the lab to practice and flesh it out in real time.
The same goes for our spiritual life. We learn on Sunday morning or in our private reading, but until we flesh it out in real time and space, it doesn’t make much of a difference. When we get into the rhythm of practicing our faith, especially in relationships with others, we are challenged to depend on God and ask Him to give us the strength to love others in the ways He wants us to love.
Bottom line: the best place for you to anchor and embed these new desires and values, to forge a real-time and space faith is in a weekly commitment to a small group of friends and followers who are committed like you to asking God to reveal and confirm His purposes and practices in your personal and public world. It will also be the place, when you see them becoming real in your life, that will be the first to celebrate with you the transformation being a disciple of Jesus will make in you.
Quick question:
name a place where you can practice these things on a regular, weekly basis. I
have a big one for you: a small group.
As you engage with others around that table or living room; share your stories,
your struggles, your failures and pain; ask for prayer while praying for others—you
are weaving the habit of deepening and sharpening your faith while anchoring it
into the steady rhythm of your schedule. Not only that—by your willingness to
carve out time and space in real time to practice your faith with others, you
are securing a presence in both your private world AND public world to your Biblical
values and convictions. Did you know that in large part, the commands of Jesus Christ in the New Testament are relationship-based commands? Do an exhaustive read, and you’ll find twenty-one commands of things we are to practice (love, serve, encourage, forgive), and ten commands of things to avoid doing (slander, criticize)–all within the context of relating to others. Every writer of the New Testament includes a few in their letters to churches or people.
It’s hard to love when you’re isolated from people and live in your own bubble world. It’s tough to honor others when you have nobody to practice that on. It’s easy to accept others when it’s in the theoretical imaginations of your mind; but doing it with real people and personalities gets much, much tougher. Serving is easy and convenient when nobody is connected enough to you relationally to make it inconvenient and sacrificial to your preferences.
This is why I believe so firmly in our growth group ministry. It is the laboratory where you can practice the things you learn in a class at Living Word, or read in scriptures on your own. Remember in college when you had a class that had a laboratory connected to it as part of the requirements? You’d go to class, learn the information, then head to the lab to practice and flesh it out in real time.
The same goes for our spiritual life. We learn on Sunday morning or in our private reading, but until we flesh it out in real time and space, it doesn’t make much of a difference. When we get into the rhythm of practicing our faith, especially in relationships with others, we are challenged to depend on God and ask Him to give us the strength to love others in the ways He wants us to love.
Bottom line: the best place for you to anchor and embed these new desires and values, to forge a real-time and space faith is in a weekly commitment to a small group of friends and followers who are committed like you to asking God to reveal and confirm His purposes and practices in your personal and public world. It will also be the place, when you see them becoming real in your life, that will be the first to celebrate with you the transformation being a disciple of Jesus will make in you.
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