If your Christian
walk seems to be one test after another, check out what I perceive may be 7 key
fitness tests areas and their related lessons we need to learn. There is indeed
a ‘method to the seeming madness’ of all these tests. God gracefully allow
tests in these areas, and lessons that should drawn from them as part of His readying
process for increasing our usefulness in His Kingdom:
1. Pride.
Selfish pride is the mother/root of all sin. This is the sin that got satan and
his gang into inescapable trouble. 1 Pride may
well be a permanent fixture in human hearts. If so, the object may not be
to exorcise pride, but to replace pride in selfish accomplishments with pride
only in God's Grace accomplishments through us. Jeremiah 9:23-24 carefully
outline what humans should and should not be proud (boast) about. Hence, I am
retraining myself to avoid the phrase, ‘I am proud of _____.’ Imagine
what that phrase must sound like to God, who hates selfish pride. Rather, I
prefer to say, ‘I am pleased and grateful for ______’. Don't ever think
you will be useful in the Kingdom of Christ with active selfish pride in your
life.
Here’s a great tip
to apply whenever the spirit of pride raises its ugly head in your affairs. Be
on the look-out for opportunities to apply it: Turn the tables on
pride by shifting the focus away from ‘me, myself, my, mine’ to the
other person(s) – the listeners, readers or otherwise ‘would have been
recipients’ of your own pride. It is truly interesting and humbling to converse
with another person who has learned well and knows tactfully how to apply this
tip!
2. Spirit-led.
We are all raised, trained and educated to be so carnally minded to the point
that it is largely impossible to be led by The Spirit of God as He moves within
our spirit. As a result, we have 'eyes that can't see, ears that can't hear,
and a heart that is dull and not oriented to God.2 To increase your usefulness in God's Kingdom, be on the look-out for tests and
lessons that teach you how to have a heart that is submissive and open to God,
as the condition of your heart determines the openness of your spiritual eyes
and ears to be led by Him, rather than by your flesh and carnal things of the
world.
3. Results/Feedback.
We are instinctively trained to be 'customer service oriented', relying
heavily, if not primarily on notable results and feedback. This is being led by
external factors rather than by the internal, promised Peace of God. Be on the
look-out for tests and lessons that teach you how to be internally led,
seeing/hearing, but largely ignoring external results and feedback that
conflict with what you have heard from God inside your spirit. All
externalities are easily manipulated by the enemy of your soul.
4. Renewal.
When tired and exhausted, we instinctively want to 'veg out' and not be
mentally taxed. Whew! We are typically drawn to so-called mindless activity,
such as TV ('the boob tube', a 1960s expression for stupid TV programming),
movies, games, social palaver, gossip, etc. A tired mind and body are
wide open doors that leave us exposed to subtle and not so subtle attacks,
manipulations and seed planting by the enemy of our soul (i.e.,
our mind, imagination, intellect, will and emotions). A day or so after
such exposure, my faith is often weaker, leaving me to wonder, ‘What
happened?!’ Be on the look-out for tests and lessons that teach more
wholesome ways to relax and renew depleted mental and physical resources.
5. Joy. Joy
to our spirit is like good quality fuel to a vehicle. It generates spiritual
strength, ensuring our ability to attract, recognize and utilize God's Grace to
us. Joy has a symbiotic relationship with gratitude/gratefulness and
praise, as it both feeds and is fed by gratitude and praise. Joy also is a
great antidote for temptations to enter into offense and strife, which work
together to open the door to 'every possible evil'. 3 These
are satan’s favorite bait. Consider the Spirit of Joy and the Spirit of
Gratitude as ‘spiritual cousins, much like the Spirits of Grace and Peace. Be
on the look-out for tests and lessons that teach you how to keep your joy
leveled, rather than tightly attached to the roller coaster of emotions and
externalities, both of which are easily manipulated by the enemy of your
soul.
6. Relationships.
Generally, we are instinctively social. Since the majority of us are raised,
trained and educated to be carnally-minded (minding more the things of our
carnal world, un-tuned with the spiritual nature of life), most of our
relationships are with people whom The Bible calls spiritually dead to God,
and possibly a very few people who are spiritually alive (i.e., born again) to
God, yet who may have chosen to remain what The Bible cites as 'spiritual
babes' in Christ. Be on the look-out for tests and lessons that teach you
how to recognize and to be timely in assessing, and if necessary, severing
ineffectual relationships with people in both groups.
7. Worship.
This is an area worth considerable pondering. Worship typically has little or
nothing to do with our so-called church worship services. Look for tests and
lessons that teach how worship as a lifestyle, is a powerful spiritual weapon.
A worship lifestyle is the best antidote to carnal-mindedness, as it
permanently places the presence of Jesus in the center of our mental landscape.
Worship has a symbiotic relationship with praise and patience.
The thread that
knits these 7 fitness test areas together is Love, fueled by the
forgiveness we receive from Christ when we don't deserve it, and in obedience,
pass along to others when they may not deserve it. Some follow-up actions you
may be prompted to take from lessons drawn from tests in these areas may ‘not
look like love’ to onlookers. In such cases, revisit area #3 above, and
continue to follow the inner Peace of God.
I suspect the
lessons from tests in these areas are best drawn out and revealed in the
so-called 'wilderness experiences' of our lives. These are times
when The Lord pulls us aside, away from the hustle and bustle of our carnal
lives (to quiet unfruitful voices), and prompts us to tune into His still, quiet,
inner peace. Lessons are rarely drawn out in the midst of trying tests,
right?
As you continue
your Bible reading, study and meditation, I invite and encourage you to:
(a) Reflect on
where and how these lessons are reiterated in the lives of the good, bad and
ugly characters of Bible stories. You will see this clearly if you look
for it. Consider the opposite results people received who learned these
lessons, compared to those who refused to learn and be instructed by their tests.
Have you noticed that every written promise from The Lord, is backed-up with very teachable 'good and bad' examples in which those promises were embraced by faith, versus shunned by disbelief or fear? Look for it, and you will learn to correlate The Lord's promises, with these good and bad teachable examples! Insightful??
(b) No matter
where you may be in learning these life lessons, SHARE them with somebody
often in your own words. The ‘art’ of sharing in this manner not only
triggers you to regurgitate, review, reorganize and rehearse these
lessons, but it also helps you to keep them close to the center of your own mental
landscape, and to be attentive to God’s tests set-ups to facilitate these
lessons.
(c) Check
yourself, as I do, to see if, how, where some of these test areas have been
highlighted in your life, too. Then honestly assess your responses and results
to see how fit you are becoming in your walk, and in your own usefulness to The
Kingdom of God on earth.
I think you already may know…
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1 Isaiah 14:13-14, Lucifer’s 5 great “I will” professions.
2 Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 6:10, 32:3, 44:18; Jeremiah 5:21; Ezekiel 12:2; Matthew 13:15-16; Mark 8:18; Acts 28:27; and Romans 11:8. NB: Whenever The Lord wants to accentuate a key topic, He allows it to be established iteratively, ‘in the mouths of two or three witnesses’. Count the number of references to unseeing spiritual eyes and unhearing spiritual ears!
3 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. (James 3:16)
Ponder
this. Terrorists believe the best way to
hasten the coming of their savior is to trigger worldwide terror, death and
destruction. Contrast this with how
Christians are prompted by Peter to consider how we may hasten the return of
Jesus Christ to begin His Millennial Reign:
