The Key to Spiritual Maturity

Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

Now, this is amazing. Don’t miss it. It could save you years of wasted living.

What this verse is saying is that if you want to become mature and understand and appreciate the more solid teachings of the word, then the rich, nutritional, precious milk of God’s gospel promises must transform your moral senses — your spiritual mind — so that you can discern between good and evil.

Or, let me put it another way. Getting ready to feast on all God’s word is not first an intellectual challenge; it is first a moral challenge. If you want to eat the solid food of the word, you must exercise your spiritual senses so as to develop a mind that discerns between good and evil. This is a moral challenge, not just intellectual.

The startling truth is that, if you stumble over understanding Melchizedek in Genesis and Hebrews, it may be because you watch questionable TV programs. If you stumble over the doctrine of election, it may be because you still use some shady business practices. If you stumble over the God-centered work of Christ on the cross, it may be because you love money and spend too much and give too little.

The pathway to maturity and to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person, but becoming an obedient person. What you do with alcohol and sex and money and leisure and food and computers, and the way you treat other people, has more to do with your capacity for solid food than where you go to school or what books you read.

This is so important because in our highly technological society we are prone to think that education — especially intellectual education — is the key to maturity. There are many Ph.D.’s who choke in their spiritual immaturity on the things of God. And there are many less-educated saints who are deeply mature and can feed with pleasure and profit on the deepest things of God’s word.

John Piper 

Are You Enduring Today Just to Get to Tomorrow?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Proverbs 27:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I read some research by psychologist William Morriston who reported that 94% of the 3,000 persons he surveyed were enduring today in order to get to tomorrow.

Do you know anyone like that? Perhaps you are one of those.

Tomorrow, you’re going on vacation. Tomorrow, you’re going to get the house cleaned. Tomorrow, you’re going to start your diet. Tomorrow, you’re going to balance your checkbook. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

The only problem is…tomorrow never arrives. When it gets here, it is today. And today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

ACTION POINT:

It is always today. Act accordingly!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Gravity of Gratitude

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful . . . (2 Timothy 3:1–2)

Notice how ingratitude goes with pride, abuse, and insubordination.

In another place Paul says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking . . . but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). So, it seems that gratitude, thankfulness, is the opposite of ugliness and violence.

The reason this is so is that the feeling of gratitude is a humble feeling, not a proud one. It is other-exalting, not self-exalting. And it is glad-hearted, not angry or bitter. Bitter thankfulness is a contradiction in terms.

The key to unlocking a heart of thankfulness and overcoming bitterness and ugliness and disrespect and violence is a strong belief in God, the Creator and Sustainer and Provider and Hope-giver. If we do not believe we are deeply indebted to God for all we have and hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude has gone dry.

So, I conclude that the rise of violence and sacrilege and ugliness and insubordination in the last times is a God-issue. The basic issue is a failure to feel gratitude at the upper levels of our dependence.

When the high spring of gratitude to God fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure.

Pray for a great awakening of humble gratitude.

John Piper 

Can you choose to be happy?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. Psalm 7:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Did you know that happiness is a choice?

A man said to a beggar one day, “Good day my friend.”

The beggar answered, “Well, thank you, but I never have a bad one.”

The man responded, “Well, may God give you a happy life, my friend.”

And the beggar replied, “I thank God that I am never unhappy.”

The man was speechless. And the beggar continued, “When I have plenty to eat, I thank God. When I am hungry, I thank God. If it is God’s will for me to endure this, then whatever is God’s will for me makes me happy.”

He chose to be happy.

ACTION POINT:

What do you want? Do you want to be happy? Then choose to be happy today no matter your circumstances…by praising God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Five Reasons Death Is Gain

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

How is it “gain” to die?

1) Our spirits will be made perfect (Hebrews 12:22–23).

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

There will be no more sin in us. We will be done with the inner war and the heartrending disappointments of offending the Lord who loved us and gave himself for us.

2) We will be relieved of the pain of this world (Luke 16:24–25).

The joy of the resurrection will not yet be ours, but the joy of freedom from pain will be. Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man to show the great reversal that is coming at death.

“[The rich man] called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.’”

3) We will be given profound rest in our souls (Revelation 6:9–11).

There will be a serenity beneath the eye and care of God that surpasses anything we have known here on the softest summer evening by the most peaceful lake at our most happy moments.

I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer.

4) We will experience a deep at-homeness (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

The whole human race is homesick for God, without knowing it. When we go home to Christ, there will be a contentment beyond any sense of security and peace we have ever known.

5) We will be with Christ (Philippians 1:21–23).

Christ is a more wonderful person than anyone on earth. He is wiser, stronger, and kinder than anyone you enjoy spending time with. He is endlessly interesting. He knows exactly what to do and what to say at every moment to make his guests as glad as they can possibly be. He overflows in love and with infinite insight into how to use that love to make his loved ones feel loved. Therefore Paul said,

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

John Piper 

You’ll be stronger, not weaker

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What does Paul mean in this verse when he says he “takes pleasure” in all of these difficult circumstances? He’s saying that…

If his money were taken, he would end up with greater riches. His weakness becomes his strength.

When Paul was isolated and placed in solitary confinement, then Jesus was near. His weakness became his strength.

If they beat him and he hurt, then Paul had the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. His weakness became his strength.

If his body became crippled and he was no longer able to lean upon the arm of flesh, then Paul had to lean on the Everlasting Arms.

Paul took pleasure in these things, because their result was to make him stronger in the Lord.

ACTION POINT:

God is waiting to make you strong. There is power in our suffering. Suffering is not going to hurt you; it is going to strengthen you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We All Need Help

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

Every one of us needs help. We are not God. We have needs. We have weaknesses. We have confusion. We have limitations of all kinds. We need help.

But every one of us has something else: We have sins. And therefore at the bottom of our hearts we know that we do not deserve the help we need. And so we feel trapped.

I need help to live my life, and to handle death, and to cope with eternity — help with my family, my spouse, my children, my loneliness, my job, my health, my finances. I need help. But I don’t deserve the help I need.

So what can I do? I can try to deny it all and be a superman or a superwoman, who doesn’t need any help. Or I can try to drown it all and throw my life into a pool of sensual pleasures. Or I can simply give way to the paralysis of despair.

But God declares over this hopeless situation: Jesus Christ became a High Priest to shatter that despair with hope, and to humble that superman or superwoman, and to rescue that drowning wretch.

Yes, we all need help. Yes, none of us deserves the help we need. But no to despair and pride and lechery. Look at what God says. Because we have a Great High Priest, the throne of God is a throne of grace. And the help we get at that throne of grace is mercy and grace to help in time of need. Grace to help! Not deserved help — gracious help. That’s why the High Priest, Jesus Christ, shed his own blood.

You are not trapped. Say no to that lie. We need help. We don’t deserve it. But we can have it. You can have it right now and forever. If you will receive and trust in your High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, and draw near to God through him.

John Piper