Charis

I’ve been listening to and teaching with Gregory Dickow’s 2-lesson series, Absolute Freedom from Anger. for the last few weeks in our marriage small group. It’s a great teaching for a number of reasons. Dickow provides strong, clear, biblical instruction on how to deal with anger, and he also highlights the many reasons we need to confront our anger and master it. For those who need motivation beyond Paul’s injunction to “put off anger” (Colossians 3:5), Dickow discusses the physical and emotional toll that anger can exact from us and those who become the objects of our anger.

He finishes with a discussion of Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” I’ve never heard a good explanation of meekness, and I confess that when I heard the word in the past, I thought of “Jesus, meek and mild” and the wimpy-looking figure presented as Jesus in children’s Sunday school handouts. Dickow is quick to confront the stereotype of meekness as weakness. Continue reading »

Today’s entry from My Utmost for His Highest is well-timed for me. Chambers says that if we want scientific understanding, go for intellect, but if we want spiritual understanding, we must obey. (I should note here that as far I as I can tell, Chambers was not anti-intellectual; rather, he recognized that God’s economy works differently.)

To illustrate his point, Chambers takes Matthew 5:23–24: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (ESV). He follows with this: Jesus “is saying, in essence, ‘Don’t say another word to me; first be obedient by making things right.’” Chambers goes on to say:

The teachings of Jesus hit us where we live. We cannot stand as impostors before Him for even one second. He instructs us down to the very last detail. The Spirit of God uncovers our spirit of self-vindication and makes us sensitive to things that we have never even thought of before.

Here’s the thing for me: I find it pretty easy to obey in the single-action situations. When God showed us we should move to Birmingham, I didn’t struggle with that. Giving money to someone isn’t hard. It’s the day-to-day, “obey. repeat. repeat again.” kinds of things that cause me problems. Take self-defense, which I wrote about earlier this week. That day, I did fairly well (I think). The next day, likewise. But yesterday: I was rather unkind to Teddie last night. Strike rather: I was flat-out ugly. As I tried to go to sleep, I was pondering my failure of self-control. I thought, “Holy Spirit, why didn’t you remind me about keeping my mouth shut and letting God take care of things?” Immediately, the Spirit replied: “You didn’t slow down enough to listen.” I could only say, “You are right.”

So I see two things at work here: first, obedience requires discipline. That’s why one-time acts are easy and repeat performances are hard. It takes discipline to do something again and again and again. Second, obedience requires a listening heart. There are times when I’m in conflict and I’m listening for the Spirit’s voice to tell me what to say (or more likely, what not to say). But there are many times when I’m so focused on myself that, like David, I strap on my sword and pledge to kill everything in my path.

Discipline and listening. As always, Chambers brings it down to a simple level, cutting to the core: “Examine the things you tend simply to shrug your shoulders about, and where you have refused to be obedient, and you will know why you are not growing spiritually.” Though I would like to think that I don’t “shrug my shoulders” about anything God says, my heart tells me that’s not true. There are indeed times when I refuse to be obedient. I want to say the hurtful thing; I want to eat when I know I shouldn’t. I want to be lazy when I know I should work.

Just as I’m about to become overwhelmed here by all I need to obey, the quiet voice of the Spirit reminds me that Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” And I’m reminded that God is a father, not a taskmaster: just as I work with my children to help them grow in disciplines (like cleaning their rooms), God works with me. When I remember this, obedience and growth don’t seem so hard.

I’m reading Graham Cooke’s The Secret of a Powerful Inner Life—less than 60 pages, but slow going because there’s so much to think about. Here’s what caught my attention this morning:

How much of our “spirituality” is threatened by opposition? Do we feel the urge to control or dominate in human confrontations? How much of our peace is destroyed by conflict? How easily upset are we? How long does it take us to regain normal, good humor? How vulnerable are we to anger, resentment, and bitterness? How long do we hold a grudge? How quick are we to forgive? How willing are we to be restored?

If the answer to any of those questions is, in any way, negative, we are more likely living in our souls than in our spirits.

Ouch!

Lest this leave you feeling overwhelmed with your failures, Cooke offers hope in the next paragraph:

God is breaking our controlling selves by enabling us to submit to the spiritual fruit of self-control. Our dominatnig, manipulative selves must become humble and submissive to Christ. We must learn to reassert our wills as the vehicle of the spirit over our emotions and thought lives.