January 20, 2010

Hunger and Thirst for the Spirit:

The Spiritual Yearning of Our Time
Wanting More
“Spirituality is the pattern by which we shape our lives in response to our experience of
God as a very real presence in and around us…. To be spiritual is to take seriously our
consciousness of God’s presence and to live in such a way that the presence of God is
central in all that we do.” (Howard L. Rice, Reformed Spirituality, 45-46)

Are we shaping our lives in response to our experience to God in a way that
acknowledges Him as God, as the One who in Christ has gone to the ends of the earth
for us, who loves us beyond measure and who graciously and amazingly wants a
relationship with you and me? Are we living in such a way that the presence of God is
central in all that we do?!? Not just in our head do we believe this to be true, but do our
lives take the shape that if someone were to simply look at our life it would proclaim this
truth, this reality that God is central in all that we do?!?

Obstacles to the Spiritual life

Comfort (Maybe Your Life is Too Safe)
• We have been sucked into the superficial values that Thompson mentions
our culture glorifies: material wealth, social status, success, power.
• The pursuit of these values blur the true hunger and ache we feel in our
lives and hearts for God
• The reality is, it is so hard to swim against the tide of the rest of the world
that we find it is easier to float and let the tide of secularism and
materialism carry us down stream.
• The values that the world offers us to live by are much easier and much
more comfortable to cultivate than the values that spiritual disciplines
train in us.
Volume (Maybe Your Life is Too Loud)
“Our lack of intimacy often is due to our refusal to unplug and shut off communication
from all others so we can be alone with him.” (Francis Chan, Forgotten God, 109)
• Technology has fed an appetite for answers now and information at this
moment, which doesn’t jive well with God’s “Be still and know that I am God”
way of operating.
• Multitasking – We learn how and get use to doing multiple things at once, which
means we are not giving our full and undivided attention to one thing very often.
As a result we have a hard time giving undivided attention to one thing when it is
necessary
• Need to focus! Spiritual disciplines are if nothing else about focusing if they are
to be practiced well.
• Intentionality – it takes intentionality and priority to find the time and space to
be alone with God.

1
Why Spiritual Disicplines?
Spiritual disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that God can transform
us. There is always a tension between grace and response as Thompson addressed. The
plain fact is that the boat won’t move if the sail is not up. When we practice spiritual
disciplines, we put ourselves in the posture to receive what God desires to give us.

“By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing, they can only get us to the
place where something can be done… They are the means by which we place ourselves
where [God ] can bless us” (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 7).

Spiritual discipline, like ordinary discipline, is repetitive exercises that enable us to

achieve some goal.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 – “Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person
gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice
strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an
eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a
boxer who misses his punches. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do
what it should.”

The question this passage challenges us with is: What does our dedication to the gospel
look like? Are we training rigorously or are we a flabby, armchair spectator?

Training in the spiritual life is hard work! It means we will have to rearrange our
priorities, sacrifice certain things, we will have to give up allowing ourselves excuses, but
it also offers us a prize like no other…a deep and intimate relationship with the God of
the universe who truly will fill every need and desire!

Wise Spiritual Training

• Wise training respects the freedom of the Spirit.
• Wise training respects our unique temperament and gifts.
• Wise training will take into account our season of life.
• Wise training respects the inevitability of troughs and peaks.
• Wise training is best practiced in community.
• Wise training begins with a clear decision and intentionality.

“God would much rather that we learn to be faithful in a few humble commitments than
that we continually despair over our failures because we take on too much.” (Soul Feast,
xxi)

“When we begin to take spiritual practices seriously, the possibilities for personal and
corporate transformation are truly beyond our imagining.” (Soul Feast, xxii)

Ephesians 3 :16-19 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have
power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the
love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to
the measure of all the fullness of God.