The Training of the Soul

Last week we talked about Steven Curtis Chapman calling out to his son who had just hit his little sister with an SUV, “Will Franklin, your father loves you.”  Even in our biggest mistakes and regrets, even in our shame and rebellion, God speaks love and grace to us.  We want to live in that reality.

We said living in the Gospel is effortless, because God is the worker.  It’s about God giving grace, love, forgiveness, healing, etc.  It’s about what He does.

But we also said that is requires great effort.  We saw how Paul was not passive but was straining and striving toward the prize.  We must make every effort to enter God’s rest.

And we put these two together by saying we’re a sailboat, not a kayak.  The effort we exert is not to get us to the other side.  The effort we exert is in catching the wind.

But then we said it’s not easy to catch the wind.  We do not naturally turn to God and trust in Him. It’s not easy or natural to live in that “Will Franklin, your father loves you” world.  Instead, we are instinctively and intuitively self-focused, performanced-based, and self-reliant.  It is a major paradigm shift to become God-centered, grace-based, and God-dependent.

So we said we need training.  We need to train our souls to turn to God, to behold Him and taste His goodness, to experience His faithfulness, grace, and love.

¹ Blessed is the man

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the seat of mockers.

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.  (Ps 1:1-3)

We need to train our souls to meditate on God’s Word and delight in it.

¹⁶ Be joyful always;  ¹⁷ pray continually;  ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  (1 Thess 5:16-18)

We need to train our souls to rejoice, to pray, to give thanks.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  (Gal 5:16)

We need to train our souls to live by the Spirit, live by faith, to live in His power, not ours.

Today’s message is much more a practical seminar than an expository sermon.

I want to give a couple more points before we begin:

Let’s beware of legalism.

There is a danger when we speaking about spiritual disciplines and effort.  It’s easy to slip back into performance mode, works-righteousness, self-reliance.  It’s easy to measure ourselves, or feel that God measures us, according to our performance.  As we said last week with meditating on the Promises, it’s not about how many verses you memorized or how long you spend in meditation.  It’s not about how good we are at the disciplines.  It’s about seeing God, it’s about growing in our love and trust for Him.

Do we really want training?

I am presuming a desire to know Christ more, to live in the freedom, joy and love of the Gospel, to be more deeply transformed.  Before we spend our time considering the training of our souls, we should pause to consider, do we want to train our souls?  Or are we pretty content to live as we are?  Do we want to go to spiritual training camp, or would we rather spiritually stay home and watch TV?

Let me address us: I fear there is something of a spiritual complacency at Renewal.  I fear that some of us do not have a spiritual hunger or a deep desire for Christ.  Paul wrote about how he was willing to give up all things, considering them rubbish to gain Christ.  But for us, some of us are not wiling to inconvenience our time or agenda to pursue more of Christ.

If this is where you are, that you do not desire God, I’d like you to be honest with yourself and with God.  Then I’d like to ask, do you desire to desire God?  Are you willing to let yourself stay in complacency or do you want to seek a greater heart for God?  You could pray, Lord, I seek You.  Please soften and strengthen my heart.

Self-discipline is a transferable strength

Paul says he beats his body and makes it his slave.  It is not an easy thing to be masters of ourselves, to be in control, to have self-discipline.

I heard one preach talk about maintaining a certain amount of self-discipline in his life.  He runs, and for him, he won’t let himself quit on a distance run.  He considers the mental toughness and physical endurance as part of his character that affects his spiritual life as well.  We have our character, and this plays out in different aspects of our lives.

In other words, self-discipline in one area can translate to self-discipline in another area.

Conversely, lack of discipline in one area can be an indicator in a lack of self-discipline in other areas.

Lack of discipline in financial spending, eating habits, and exercise can imply a lack of discipline in anger management, time management, and prayer. 

If we lack discipline and focus in our studies, our work, our health, our finances, it may very well be that we’ll also lack discipline and focus in our spiritual disciplines.

In particular, some of these more mental spiritual activities (studying the Bible, prayer & meditation) require some mental discipline and powers of focus.  For some of us, our difficulty in prayer is related to a lack of mental discipline to sustain focus for a longer period of time.

Some of us may very well have developed self-discipline in our lives.  That’s partly what enabled you to succeed in school, advance in your career, and achieve various goals.  It may be to your benefit that you can draw on that self-discipline as we approach the training of our souls. 

To you, the danger is self-reliance, self-dependence.  The danger is that you feel the answer to our spiritual problems is more self-discipline.  We can easily make it about our performance.

Others of us may have really struggled with focus and discipline in other areas of our lives, and it may be that the training of your soul will also involve a more general self-discipline, self-mastery development.

There are two spiritual disciplines I commend to you today:

Getting off the Merry-Go-Round

I think one of the main reasons why spiritual transformation is so difficult is because we’re too busy.  We have too many distractions.  We don’t sit still long enough to quiet our souls and experience His presence.  I’ve called this E-Z Pass spirituality: just slow down enough to get through the toll booth, but then keep on driving.  We need to pull the car off to the side, park it, and camp out for a little while.  We need to slow down, take out a big chunk of time, and spend time alone with God.

Some call it the discipline of slowness and solitude. 

I consider a type of fasting: fasting from productivity or entertainment or friends—pull away from places where we get our significance or our comfort.  We need to let go of these other source that we can otherwise enjoy and say we want God more than these.

It is a Sabbath principle.  The Sabbath was given so that we would rest from our labor and worship God.  There is built-in slowing down time, space creation.  There is time/space set aside to worship, rest in, and enjoy God.  This would be a kind of Sabbath keeping.

For many of us, it’s the issue of the thorny soil:

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.  (Mt 13:22)

There’s just too many concerns and distractions, there’s no space for the work of God in our souls.

I know of some pastor friends who make it their practice to take personal retreats.  I know of people who have spend a couple days at different monasteries.  And I’ve had times of extended solitude that I’ve found so profoundly helpful for my busy-beaver tendencies.

Solitude well practiced will break the power of busyness, haste, isolation, and loneliness.  You will see that the world is not on your shoulders after all.  You will find yourself, and God will find you in new ways. . .

You will rarely find any person who has made great progress in the spiritual life who did not at some point have much time in solitude and silence.

A pastor who has been discovering all this writes, “As I have slowed my life down through silence and solitude, I have discovered both the wickedness hidden by a hurried life as well as the wonder and delight my Father has in me.  Oddly, through intentional times of practicing spiritual disciplines, my walk with Jesus has become more spontaneous.  He is present in more of my day.  I have loved others better, and see progress made in overcoming anger and the desire to have things my way.  In a nutshell, Jesus has greater access to and control over my life.  I’m more in tune to the still small voice of the Spirit.”  (Willard, The Great Omission, pp. 36-37)

I’d like to encourage/challenge you to consider setting aside at least half a day, 4 hours, to be alone with God.  Get away, turn off the phone, and seek to be still before God. 

This is not for the “fit Jesus into the cracks of my busy life” but the “I need to get serious about training my soul.”

It may take the first hour just to detox, just to let all the little thoughts, distractions clear from your mind.  It may take some time just to be still.

Take a journal, something to write on.  Take your Bible and maybe that sheet of Bible promises.  Maybe some of you will want to take a guitar and some praise music.  Take whatever will help you connect your soul with God.  Maybe some of you will want to a mountain or beach and go for a long, meditative walk.  There’s no one way to do this.

Suggestions for a Day of Solitude and Silence

give thanks

repent

meditate on promises (perhaps memorize Scripture/Psalm)

intercede for others

be still, rest, listen

But again, the point of these things is not to just do them.  The point is to connect with God, to taste and see that the Lord is good.  It’s not about us doing disciplines, it’s about beholding our great and glorious God.

Let me urge you to set aside at least 4 hours, go away. We can spend hours and hours watching the Olympics (4 hours every night) or DVD’s or surfing the web.

Perhaps you can consider penciling some possible times when you can pull the spiritual car off to the side, park, set up camp for a few hours with God.

Becoming Creatures of Habit

I read this article from the NY Times about the power of habits and associations (July 13, 2008, Charlers Duhigg, “Warning: Habits May Be Good for You”). 

Studies revealed that as much as 45 percent of what we do is habitual.  We do things without thinking in certain locations, times of the day, when we’re in particular moods or when we’re with certain groups of people.  Companies have learned to tie consumeristic behaviors to various cues.  These companies have taught us to brush our teeth twice a day, chew gum, apply lotion, etc.

An example of this kind of marketing is the success of Febreze [picture].  Proctor & Gamble introduced Febreze in 1996 as a way to remove odors from smelly clothes.  They found people would leave their jackets outside after an evening in a smoke-filled bar to air out the smell.  So they ran ads that showed clothes that smelled like smoke, smelly pets, sweat teens, stinky minivans, etc.

But Febreze flopped.  The problem was that bad smells didn’t happen often enough in consumers lives for them to form a habit.  Consumers told of how they liked Febreze when they used it, but they often forgot that Febreze was even in the house.  It’s not that they didn’t like it, its that it didn’t get tied into their habits.

And so P & G changed their pitch.  They tied Febreze, not with eliminating bad odors, but with cleaning.  They had commercials of women spraying Febreze on a perfectly made bed or on freshly laundered clothes.  They made it the finishing touch to a daily chore.  They associated Febreze with a clean room, a clean house.  Now Febreze is a $650 million/year product.

The point is, we are creatures of habit, and we often do our habits as we’re prompted by different environmental cues.  And so I’d like to encourage us to form some good habits.

For example, most of us probably pray before meals.  We made that association, so that now it’s a habit.  And although some times we might pray those prayers mindlessly, if we gave it some thought, it could be a great practice to acknowledge God’s provision and give him genuine thanks 3 times a day.

Daniel prayed 3 times a day toward Jerusalem.

I know for some people, they have a time & place for prayer.  I remember when I was in college, there were a few churches on campus that I would go to for prayer.  And whenever I’d pass those buildings, I would think about God and spending time in prayer.

I remember when I was a teen, my dad made me pray as I got into the car.  We all have a “car” ritual: we check our mirrors, put on our seat belts, maybe turn on the radio.  My dad had me also pray before I drove.  And for many years, that was my habit.

I think for some people, being in the car is place associated with God.  They listening to praise and sermons, they pray.  The car is associated with God’s presence.  For others, the car is a very Godless place.

I sometimes take SEPTA when I go to church during the week, and I always take my iPod.  It’s a bit odd, but I’m beginning to associate SEPTA with sermons.  I don’t have to ask myself how I’m going to spend that time.  I habitually grab my iPod and listen a sermon.

I remember Janette used to take her nursing time as time to pray for the baby.

Instead of having P & G form our consumeristic habits, perhaps we could be intentional about forming some spiritual habits.

Maybe you could make singing praise songs as part of taking a shower [picture].

Maybe every time you open your wallet [picture] you give thanks for His provisions.  You think about all that He’s given you, both materially and spiritually.

Maybe you could make your actual closet [picture] a place of prayer, so that every time you open your closet, you are reminded of prayer.

For parents, we probably have intentional habits for our kids: saying prayers before meals, reading Bible stories before bedtime [picture], etc.  And for some of us, these are becoming great disciplines for us as well.

You want to make thinking about God, turning to God a daily habit.  Pause and consider a few possible habits/associations/cues you’d like to see developed in your daily life. 

If we got a little more sophisticated, we have emotional cues as well.

Usually, when your stressed, you like to (eat, watch TV, sleep, look at porn).   Or it’s when you’re bored, angry, depressed.

I think it would be a great association that whenever there’s a strong negative emotion: anger, bitterness, fear, worry, depression, etc.  Whenever there’s a strong negative emotion, that would be a red flag that there’s probably something bad going on in our hearts.  It would be great if anger, road rage, anxiety becomes a cue for repentance.

I’d like to recommend you do the two of these together.

Sometimes it takes an extended time to get off the merry-go-round, settle your soul, and taste something of God’s goodness, grace, holiness and presence.  It takes some time to rest your soul in His story of who He is and what He’s done.

But then you can have the cues/reminder/habits in the day to re-set, re-focus your soul.

If you don’t get off the merry-go-round, if you soul has never found rest in Him, then the cues/reminders won’t get you there.

And if you only have the extended time, the problem is that we drift, and we drift quickly.

We need to train our souls to turn to God, to trust and rest in Him.  We will not naturally go there.

Let me end with this verse:

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.  (2 Tim 1:7)

The Spirit of God gives us power, love, and self-discipline.  God gives us the discipline we need to gain more of Him.  If we lack in the discipline, ask God.

Our spiritual growth and sanctification is the story of God’s redeeming grace in our lives.  God will get all the credit and glory for our spiritual transformation.