I’m a sucker for tips. I love reading articles with titles like “50 Ways to Make Your Life Better Without Even Getting Off the Couch”. If you write a blog post entitled “7 Secrets For a Successful Garden”, I’m all over it. And I hate gardening.
I can get sucked into “Christian Tips” as well. “Five Ways to Dive Deep In Prayer”, “Three Ways To Get Your Holiness on In 2K9″, etc. Some of these articles really are valuable. Some are fluff.
But here’s the thing: my spiritual growth in 2009 isn’t going to be the result of finding the right tip list. Growth is the result of prayerfully wielding the word of God.
I don’t need to scavenge the Internet for tips on overcoming pride. I need to burn Isaiah 66:2 into my brain:
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
When pride surges in my heart I pull out the sword of God’s word and cry out, “Lord, help me be humble! Your word tells me that you look to the humble. Right now I’m proud. Forgive me and help me!” My pride is skewered by the word of God.
I don’t need “Quick Tips for Beating Anger”. I need James 4:1-2 emblazoned on my heart:
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder.
“Lord I feel so angry with my spouse right now! Your word tells me that it’s because I’m not getting what I crave. Show me what I’m craving and help me repent.”
I want to grow this year, don’t you? Will you wield the Word? It takes work. There’s no shortcuts. It’s brutal at times. But the result is the sweet fruit of godliness. Let’s make 2009 the year of the Word, not tips.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Brilliant post Stephen, the Word & Prayer are exactly how we’ll grow in ’09. May we use these tools of grace that Christ has given us, & not neglect them.
Lots of people claim to have found the secret to the successful / happy / fruitful Christian life. They have all sorts of different secrets (including Bible reading, including prayer). Any one of these may be the secret for the NEXT STEP in my Christian life, if I’ve been neglecting it, but there’s only one secret to the whole Christian life: Jesus Christ. A right relationship with him. If we have that right relationship, we’ll read his word, we’ll pray, we’ll worship, we’ll do good deeds, we’ll flee from evil, we’ll trust more and worry less, we’ll obey him day by day, we’ll participate in the ordinances, we’ll speak to others about Jesus.
Jim –
I totally agree that a relationship with Christ is the only solution for a godly Christian life. I was only seeking to make the point that as Christians we can be tempted to look for the next “tip” that will help us grow, when in reality only time spent with Christ in prayer and the word will lead us to spiritual maturity.
I needed to read this right now. Our life isn’t lists, it’s a Person! And I’ll emblazon James 4:1-2 on my mind…I could really use it.
Meditating on His promises help us to partake of His divine nature and escape the corruption in the world through lusts. When we sin we confess it, to restore fellowship with Him and we can always come to His throne of grace in our time of need.
Thanks for the clarification. I’ve found that real Christians usually agree quickly that Jesus is the way, and that we grow by relating to him. My concern is that there are some (like I used to be) who take a post like yours and do the wrong thing with it–trusting in the method–instead of the right thing, which is asking themselves whether the Lord is calling them to greater faithfulness/diligence in the method mentioned. Your post serves as a reminder to me of my own need for greater faithfulness in those areas.
Again, thank you for the clarification–and thank you for continually calling us to solid Christian faith, not just to froth.
The Christian will perennially be loathing oneself as he matures in Christ for he will be seeing clearly, in ever-increasing measure, his disparity with the Standard. This, in turn, spurns him on to run the race with greater perseverance, in the power of the Spirit.
http://underdogtheology.blogspot.com/2009/01/luthers-misery.html