If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all people, especially of those who believe.
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Last weekend, I had
the chance to attend a conference that focused on spiritual
disciplines. John Ortberg, one of the leaders, used a great
illustration that helped me think about the spiritual life.
How many of you
could run a marathon right now?
How many of you
could run a marathon if you tried really hard?
It doesn't really
matter how hard we try—if we're not prepared to run a marathon, we
probably can't run one whether we try hard or not. But if we train,
there is probably a good chance that we could complete one, even if
quite a bit of training was required. Thousands of people around the
country are able to complete marathons every year, many of whom never
thought they could achieve this goal. Running 26 miles is a
remarkable achievement.
But the training
isn't the point. No one trains for a marathon in the hopes that they
can then brag about their training. Their training has a solitary
purpose—to enable them to run the race they truly want to run.
From this, we turn
to one of the analogies that Paul uses in the New Testament. In 1
Timothy, he charges Timothy to train himself in godliness, noting
that it is valuable in every way, holding promise for this life as
well as the life to come. Our hope in Christ should drive us to live
this life in a certain way.
Thinking about
training ourselves in godliness should get us thinking about what
this training looks like. I like to turn to the spiritual
disciplines when I'm asking questions like this. This includes
prayer and times of silence, fasting and solitude, as well as
service. These disciplines don't serve an end by themselves—we
don't pray so that we can run around and brag about how much we
pray—rather, these disciplines help train us to live the life that
God wants us to live. Our disciplines matter because they give
direction to our lives, and that direction points to God.
Disciplines reorient us away from things that don't matter and focus
our eyes on Christ alone, enabling us to live and work and laugh and
play and celebrate and mourn and do everything that we do with a
heart and mind set on Christ alone. The disciplines train us to live
our lives in a certain way.
Now, the
disciplines do not earn us special status in heaven. The disciplines
do not give us authority over other Christians. What they do is
change the way we see.
Think of it like
dusting. No one dusts in the hopes that they'll accumulate a
prize-winning dust collection, right? No—we dust so that we can
see clearly the things the dust was covering. We dust to enable us
to live healthy lives. We dust so that the things around us can be
used better.
In the same way,
spiritual disciplines serve a purpose—to help us see life as Christ
intends for us to see it, to help restore us to spiritual health so
that we can live for Christ, live for others. Spiritual disciplines
are part of our training, but they are not the goal by themselves.
Having said that,
I'd like to focus on a few spiritual disciplines.
First of all, I'd
like to mention prayer. In my opinion, it's the spiritual discipline
that can fit most easily into our day-to-day routine. It's something
we can do alone or with others, and each and every situation needs to
be covered with prayer. Whenever I'm in the middle of a project, my
mind often wanders off. I find myself thinking all sorts of strange
and unimportant thoughts, and soon enough I'm wondering exactly how I
got to thinking about whatever it is I'm thinking about. Most of my
thoughts are just wasted exercises.
But we can turn
those thoughts into prayers. When we're in the midst of doing
something, we can pray that God gives us the wisdom and guidance to
do it to the best of our abilities. Whenever we see another person,
we can pray that God surround them with grace and knowledge. When we
come across something we don't know how to tackle, we can pray for
guidance. When we don't know what to pray for, we can simply picture
God dwelling on his throne in unapproachable light, more glorious
than we can imagine.
In all these
things, we are training our minds to focus on Christ, to think of God
first, and we're growing into the type of people God wants us to be.
We don't get merit badges for prayer, but in years and decades, it
will help us continue to grow as disciples.
The other
discipline I want to address is meals. Now, oftentimes we find
ourselves eating just to provide nourishment. We don't think much
about the food that's going in, and usually we're barely aware of how
it tastes because we're in such a hurry. But there is opportunity
here.
First of all, meals
are a chance to be grateful. Millions of people in this country
scarcely have enough food to get by. Not everyone has food to eat.
Let us be grateful for the blessing.
Second, God made
foods taste wonderful. If you stop and think about it, foods don't
have to taste good. If everything in nature tasted the same, it
would still serve the same purpose, right? Instead, God designed a
world with a variety of flavors and colors and textures because he is
more creative and generous than we could imagine. A crisp apple
doesn't have to taste wonderful, but God made it so because it's a
way to show his splendor and love. Let's give thanks to God for such
generosity.
Third, meals are a
great chance to connect with other people. Over meals, from the
pages of Scripture to life today, people have shared their lives,
their joys and sorrows. Let's take the chance to genuinely listen to
what is going on in the life of those with whom we dine. Let us
extend our hospitality and use meals as a chance to show Christ's
selfless love, either by sharing our food or sharing our hearts. God
is present when we dine, and may we recognize his presence among us
and seek to let Christ bring us closer to him when we dine together.
There are countless
more disciplines, ways to train in godliness, but let us focus
ourselves on our training, recognizing that God is building us up,
drawing us closer to him, giving us a glimpse here and now, in this
life, of the eternal life that is to come.
Let us pray
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