Spiritual Growth

The following is a talk I gave on spiritual growth at a men’s discipleship walk in February 2014

Are there any runners out there? I love to run. I run lots of races every year, just about any distance but I enjoy the longer races. So every year I run several marathons. When I decide to run a marathon I typically will set a goal for that race. So, with the goal in mind and the date circled on the calendar I can kick back in my recliner and watch the days tick by waiting for race day to arrive, right. No, you know that won’t work. I have to be disciplined, I have to do speed work, long runs, cross training, proper nutrition, and yes even some rest. If I am disciplined and do these things I will grow stronger and be prepared to achieve my goal. If I am not disciplined, race day will probably end in disappointment or possibly disaster.

Our spiritual lives work a lot like this. We decide to accept Christ as our savior, we put our faith in Him and perhaps we set some new goals for our life. Again, just as with running a marathon, we cannot just sit back in our recliner and watch the days tick by. We must exercise our faith. If we are disciplined we will grow spiritually and our race will not end in disappointment or disaster.

My name is Jeff Haight, and the title of my talk is Spiritual Growth.

Like most of you, I came into this world as a helpless baby. I couldn’t do anything for myself, someone did everything for me, they fed me, bathed me, dressed me, changed my diaper. Over time I grew, I became stronger, and I smelled good. Eventually I learned to do things for myself. Now as a responsible adult I have to be disciplined or things won’t go well for me. My life would be a mess and I’d be running around wearing a dirty diaper.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 12 verse 1 “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”.

Paul is not talking about running a marathon, he is talking about our Christian life. So, what are some of the spiritual disciplines we need to practice in order to grow spiritually and run our race with perseverance?

One spiritual discipline is fasting. The standard definition of a fast is to abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink. I have only fasted from food twice so I have to admit I don’t have much experience with such a fast. The point of a fast is to focus our attention on God and our need for Him. There are other things besides food that you can abstain from that can also serve to shift your focus toward God. TV, facebook, video games, even sex.

If something feels like it is becoming an idol in your life, meaning you worship it rather than God or you value it more than God, then abstaining from it for a time is a good idea. I do an annual fast from facebook for a week. I’m not condemning facebook, I love facebook and use it as a tool to communicate with friends and encourage others but a break now and then helps to put it into perspective. I can live without facebook for a week but I can’t truly live for even one day without God in my life.

Next I will talk about two spiritual disciplines. Solitude and meditation. For me these two go hand in hand. Solitude is being alone. Some people have a hard time being alone but it is healthy to be ok with being alone and as a Christian you aren’t really alone, the Holy Spirit is with you always. Meditation is defined as the action or practice of meditating, well that’s not very helpful so what is meditating. Some synonyms are contemplating, thinking, musing, pondering, consideration, reflection, deliberation, rumination. A lot of big words but simply pondering something over and over in your mind. In this case God’s Word thinking about God’s Word. Meditation helps to clear the clutter from your thoughts.

I do most of my meditating when I’m out running by myself so I experience solitude and meditation at the same time and I am a trail runner so I am often away from civilization when I run. I will have some verse or lyric from a worship song in my head and just go over and over and over as I run. Much of this talk was developed while I was running. Many of the worship songs we sing are meditative in nature where we repeat a chorus over and over again to allow our minds to marinate in that thought while keeping other thoughts out.

Another discipline is prayer. So what is prayer? One definition I found said prayer is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God. That may be true but it sounds a little stuffy and one sided. I think prayer is more than that. Prayer is an ongoing two way, back and forth, conversation with God. A friend of mine once said she didn’t think it was appropriate to pray while using the bathroom. Perhaps she has never been to Mexico. I think it’s ok to pray anytime, anywhere throughout the day. In 1 Thessalonians Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. Any time is a good time to have a conversation with God.

Certainly we should set aside specific times to pray but those times should not be the only time we pray. So when we pray, what does that look like. A prayer can be as little as one word. Sometimes a prayer might not even be words. Romans 8 says that in our weakness the Holy Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray and he gave them what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer which is recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 and more recently in one of my favorite worship songs, Manifesto by City Harmonic.

What are the main elements of the prayer Jesus taught the disciples? There are a couple of fairly well known acronyms to help us remember. PRAY and ACTS.

PRAY P, R, A, Y stands for: Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield.

ACTS A, C, T, S stands for: Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

Supplication is just a fancy way of saying to ask or make a request. So for example, using ACTS I might pray: God you are so awesome, adoration, I am a sinner, confession, thank you for your grace and mercy, thanksgiving, Lord give me strength to face this day, supplication. See it’s so easy even a caveman can do it. Please don’t interpret my feeble attempt at humor as being irreverent. Prayer is serious but my point is that prayer does not have to be long and fancy, dry and boring with just the right words, with your body in just the right position at the proper time of day. Prayer is your heartfelt communication with God in your own words, so don’t be afraid to talk to God, just say what is on your mind. Pray alone, pray with others, pray silently, pray out loud, and definitely pray with your wife if you are married and with your kids too.

Next up is the discipline of study. A definition of study is to devote time and attention to acquiring knowledge. Physically you need food for growth. Spiritually you also need food for growth and that food is the word of God. You cannot grow spiritually if you are not taking in God’s Word. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus says “It takes more than bread to stay alive, it takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth”. God’s word, the Bible. How many of us say that we just don’t have enough time to study the Bible yet we sit around watching TV for 2 or 3 hours a night, or playing video games or spending time on the internet or some other mindless activity.

I accepted Christ in 1997 but didn’t experience any significant spiritual growth until 2010. I was a member of a small church in Plainfield, Indiana. I was going through a difficult season in my life, I was angry and had decided I needed to find a new church. But God… had another plan. On January 3rd 2010 we had a new pastor who had come all the way from Kansas. This was his first day on the job and his sermon that morning centered on one verse, Colossians 3:16 let the word of Christ dwell richly in you. He challenged us to start reading the Bible every day. Then think about, what does it say, what does it mean, how does it apply to our life and then go tell someone about what we read.

I was convicted. At that moment I was convinced that God sent him all the way from Kansas to deliver that message directly to me. God was clearly telling me, Jeff you do not need a new church, you need a new heart. God wanted to have a personal relationship with me. James 4:8 says “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded”. I accepted the pastor’s challenge and started reading the Bible every day. Shortly after that I cancelled my satellite TV and haven’t had it since. I have fallen short a few days since then but I have pursued a relationship with God and studying His Word is a big part of it.

Today we have no excuse for not being in God’s Word. There are free apps for your cell phone, right there at your fingertips access to dozens of Bible translations. Reading the Bible is not the only way to study God’s word. There are hundreds perhaps thousands daily devotion books or daily email devotions, delivered right to your email every day. I get a couple different email devotions each day. The day I was asked to give this talk I started to pray that God would give me the words to say. The very next day one of my devotions was titled “Spiritual Growth”. Does God speak to us, you bet he does but we have to be in a position to hear Him.

Music can be another way to take in God’s word. What kind of music do you listen to? You can dismiss music as simply entertainment but what you allow to saturate your mind will work its way into your heart and eventually that’s what will come out of your mouth, that’s what will inform your decisions and your actions. Proverbs 4:23 says: Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not condemning popular music, I like listening to the oldies as much is the next guy but I no longer allow that to be the dominant influence in my life, I listen to Christian music almost all the time now.

The next discipline I will talk about is confession. Romans 3:23 says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Make no mistake, God knows everything about you so He knows what you did last summer. Confession isn’t for His benefit, it’s for our benefit. Unconfessed sin forms a barrier between us and God. Confession restores that broken connection. Not only should we confess our sins to God but I believe we also need to confess to our fellow Christians. I once heard our worship leader say that if you try to hold onto a secret it will come squirting out sideways, and that isn’t good, misplaced anger, pornography, unhealthy addictions to alcohol, drugs, food, gambling, sex.

I had some baggage I’d been carrying around for almost 35 years. I had a secret that I never shared with anyone, NO ONE, ever. I didn’t realize it back then but that secret was squirting out sideways in my life in ways I didn’t even start to understand until after I had let go of that secret. You see I was sexually abused when I was a teenager. When I first accepted Christ, one of the first things I did was turn that baggage over to Him. I couldn’t carry it any longer. The pain, the guilt, the shame seemed to be held in check.

God was carrying that bag for me but by keeping the secret, I was keeping a hand on that bag. Through the years God would poke me and say, let go of the bag, Jeff. No, no, I’m good, no trouble at all God, just going to keep a hand on it, in case you stumble and need my help. How silly is that. Finally in 2011, after I started to actually grow spiritually I realized that secret was stunting my growth. Eventually I came to a safe place where I could share my secret with other Christian men. Getting those words to come out of my mouth for the first time ever was possibly the hardest thing I have ever done but I can’t explain to you the relief I experienced from that confession. God already knew about all of that stuff but the healing could not truly begin as long as I kept that cancerous secret locked up inside.

The last discipline I will mention is surrender. I mention it last because it might be the most critical discipline. If you are not willing to surrender you probably won’t be able to practice any of the other disciplines effectively. Surrender is putting God first. Surrender is letting go of our stuff, our agendas, our opinions, our rights, any part of our life that isn’t aligned with God. Surrender is something we must choose to do every day.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”. Did you hear that word? Not just one time but DAILY, we must make a conscious decision to follow Christ. I have to admit some days this is not an easy choice to make. I think there are three things that often get in the way of surrender. Lust, entitlement, and pride. Lust, hey, look at that shiny new car, I want it. Entitlement, I’ve been driving this old car for a long time, I deserve that new car. Pride, I can handle those big monthly payments. Did your hear that, I, I, I, it’s all about me. Instead I should lust for God because I deserve death and I can’t handle anything without God in my life.

Look, I could fast, meditate, pray, read my bible every day, but the spiritual disciplines of confession and surrender were keeping me in a prison of my own fear. Because of what happened to me, I was just too scared to go there. It was too painful and I just didn’t think God was big enough to handle that. But God was asking me to take that step and once I realized how much He loved me and that I could trust Him completely, I stepped out into the unknown and in the process I was set free. What disciplines have you crossed off your list? Are you afraid to pray? What is keeping you from studying God’s word? What confession are you holding on to? What piece of your life are you afraid to surrender?

When I first started training for marathons it was not easy, I didn’t know what I was doing but I kept at it, one step at a time. I kept my eyes on the prize and crossing that finish line was worth the effort. It’s the same with spiritual disciplines, at first it may not be easy, you may stumble, there may be setbacks but keep at it, keep your eyes on the prize.

At this point you might be thinking; if I am practicing these disciplines, how do I know if I am growing spiritually? One answer can be found in Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law”. Before I started to grow spiritually, most of those words were not even in my vocabulary and they definitely did not show up in my behavior.

Could you use some of that spiritual fruit in your life? If so, look at how you are practicing these spiritual disciplines. I gave you a few examples, there are others and I encourage you to explore them further on your own. You made the decision to attend this walk, to make an investment in your spiritual growth. Now I challenge you, don’t squander that investment, but commit to take your growth to the next level. We are all different with different gifts and talents so don’t compare yourself to others but make an honest assessment, make a plan, set some goals, be disciplined. Then go, run your race with perseverance and reap a bountiful harvest of spiritual fruit.

Walk in love.