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The discipling nature of our walks with God

Monday 18 August 2008 at 8:49 pm.

This is the first half of a two-part post about being like Jesus in our committment to fight temptation and not sin.

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For years I've thought that people who read their Bibles and prayed every single morning without missing a morning devotion were of the spiritual elite. And to be sure, there is something to be said about being disciplined. It is a highly desired character trait that Jesus, Himself, possessed. But discipline doesn't always mean spiritual. It can be likened to "keeping an appointment." Imagine that every day a child talks to his parents 4 times a day 3 times to ask for food and once to ask for clean clothes.Hey! That’s consistency! But it’s not much of a relationship, is it?

*** We ought to spend time with God even when we don’t have a “reason” to. I'm coming more and more to the conviction that those who really walk with God do so every day, throughout the day. In other words, there is no consistency other than the fact that the walk is constant. After all,

• He is always with us.
• He is vying for our heart’s devotion at any given time
• He is wants us to be aware of His presence at all times
• He eagerly wants us to just POP into a conversation with Him 
  • Remember Tevyah from Fiddler On The Roof? I love the way he just sort of pops in and out of conversation with God whenever he has anything on his mind.

One sign that our relationship with God is strong is that we talk to Him any time, any where, about any thing. This is something I am working on in a big way. But it is hard to realize that I’m not focused on God, when I’m not focused on God! Yet the Bible lets us in on the secret of how to remain focused.

Hebrews 12:1-11
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. [2] Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. [3] Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

*** Paul is just talking about life as a Christian, here. He just finished defending his dissertation on Faith and has moved into the “encourage, admonish, spur, challenge, and inspire” section of his letter.

Here is what he is now saying to us:

• He is saying that it is HARD to stay focused.
• He is saying that it is HARD to not grow weary and lose heart.
• He’s saying it’s easy to get off course and begin running a race that is not marked out of us.
• He is saying that there are things in life that will distract us and deter us from being focused on growing our faith.
  • I’ll bet there are things that happened just this week that caused you to take your eyes off of Jesus, grow weary, and lose heart.
• He is saying that But be encouraged by the fact that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and REMEMBER JESUS!
  • Jesus didn’t only focus
  • Jesus didn’t only persevere
  • Jesus didn’t only perfect our faith
  • Jesus did it joyfully because NOTHING was ever about Him Jesus did it perfectly because His love was for the Father and others
  • Jesus did it willingly because He didn’t care what “bad” things happen to Him

Q. Isn’t it terribly easy to go down a negative road when we make our Christian lives all about us instead of Christ?

There are obviously many things about Jesus that make me stand with my mouth gaping wide, awstruck by the way he went through life without sinning. Honestly, can you hear Jesus saying things like, "Martha just yelled at me!" or "My best friend Peter just told everyone he didn't know me!" or "WAH!!! Judas betrayed me!!!"

I am convinced of two things. First, Jesus loved God way too much to ever complain. And second, Jesus was committed to NOT SINNING, and so He prayed intensely about the purity of His heart and did not leave the Father until He dealt with everything that would cause Him to stumble. I'm convinced that this is the secret to the perfection of Jesus. And this is the same attitude we must take if we are to be like Him.

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