The Falling Away of Sin

The work of the Holy Spirit in changing us is not to work directly on our bad habits but to make us admire Jesus Christ so much that sinful habits feel foreign and distasteful.
                                           ~ John Piper

I really appreciate this line from Piper. It makes a good point that reveals the natural progression of change that happens within the heart of a believer. As our souls feast on the spiritual manna of Scripture they are fed with food that is nourishing, that builds our characters up and helps train our minds towards what is right in the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit impresses upon our hearts to move towards actions that build up God's Kingdom and not towards those which can help break it down.


As we are filled with the sense of God's love all things that are a contrast to that light which filters through the corridors of our hearts begin to feel magnified, distasteful, foreign and cumbersome. I know through personal experience that sins that I might have rationalized or justified for awhile began to be too burdensome for me to cling to once I opened my heart ever wider to the Spirit's light and instruction. It wasn't even like I felt that repugnant towards them but it was more like they were once leaves, thriving on the vine encircling my heart, keeping it from growing with the love of God and as I started to receive more and more light and love from God the source of the vine's life, my desire for sin, began to be eventually cut off. And like a plant recieving nourishment no more, my desire and attachment towards that which contradicted my faith began to just wilt away and eventually turn deathly brittle, breaking away from the hold they once had on my heart and at last falling away, allowing my heart to grow ever more and no longer be tangled with such destructive attachments and illusions. New leaves, vibrant and lush, watered by God's eternal fountain of living water, sprung up in their place.

Now, I'm not claiming to have the battle of sin all figured out. But really...does it have to be a battle, so to speak? We are all on our own individual paths towards sanctification where we become less and less part of the world and more and more in union with the likeness of Jesus. We have our whole lives to journey down this road for no matter how much scripture we read, how many prayers we lift towards God's throne, none of us will ever be perfect. I have a lot of faults! (Just ask my husband or kids!) But instead of focusing on them, and focusing on the sins that rise up from the tranquility of the day and threaten to lay claim on my peace and distract me from devotion towards God I am choosing instead (and sometimes I'm not always successful) in focusing on Jesus. Not my sins...but Jesus. For if I let the light of the spirit blossom within me, then darkness will have no choice to flee and I will find desire and attachments naturally shrinking back from the light and diminishing into nothingness, dissolved in the presence of the Spirit's love. 

Thomas Merton descibes faith as a "personal and direct acceptance of God Himself, a "receiving" of the Light of Christ in the soul and a consequent beginning or renewel of the spiritual life. "

He makes certain though that Christ is to be not only our main focus, but our only focus. "But an essential element in this reception of the "light" of Christ is the rejection of every other "light" that can appeal to sense, passion, imagination or intellect".  Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience p. 15

Not only do sins lose their hold on us when we focus on Jesus, but other things that might not have been sins but might have taken our attention away from God and distracted us from devotion, start to fall away as well, their taste becoming bitter to our soul's palate as we become accustomed to savoring the rich sweetness of God's glory.
  

When I was thinking of what might be a fitting prayer to conclude this post with I couldn't help but think of Psalm 51. It's all about sin, confessing our sins and allowing God to purify our hearts to move past our sins and then finding ourselves delivered from them and full of praise towards our creator. So, may psalm 51 be a prayer that we all can utter this morning and thank God for the truths it contains. For His unending faithfulness and love and for the mercy and redemption that is found in Jesus.

Psalm 51

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
   blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
   and cleanse me from my sin.

 ³ For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
   and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
   and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
   sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
   you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

 ⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
   wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
   and blot out all my iniquity.

 ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
   and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
   or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
   and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
   you who are God my Savior,
   and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
   you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise.

 ¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
   to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
   in burnt offerings offered whole;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

The End of Self: John Piper

How shall this insidious motive of pleasure in being made much of be broken except through bending all my faculties to delight in the pleasure of making much of God! Christian hedonism is the final solution. It is deeper than death to self. You have to go down deeper into the grave of flesh to find the truly freeing stream of miracle water that ravishes you with the taste of God's glory. Only in that speechless, all-satisfying admiration is the end of self.

                  ~ John Piper

I was thinking this morning of this passage from Piper when in my mind I envisioned a scale and then did a little experiment, perhaps you might want to do it too. It's an interesting visual activity that helps us measure the priority God has in our lives.

Ok, here it goes...picture a scale....

You have stones of equal weight all around you.  On one side put the amount of stones that represents the time you think about yourself each day. Estimate how many thoughts you have and each thought is a stone. We all do it, we all daydream and have conversations and thoughts continually running through our heads. About our dreams, our desires, our plans for the day, what we are wearing, eating, conversations we've had, etc.

And then on the other side put the number of stones representing the number of thoughts you have about God each day. His plans for you, your praises and prayers lifted up to Him, time in His Word, reflecting on His laws and the beauty and gifts of His grace and mercy.

And then...see which way the scale tilts.

Are you more consumed with thoughts about yourself or are you consumed more with your passion and love towards God?

 Don't worry, only you and God know the answer!

I know there are times when the scale can tip either way for me. Some days I am transfixed with God, coming back to His Word again and again, lifting Him up in prayer, His peace penetrating my soul as I encounter Him in the present moment, wishing nothing more than to bring Him glory in word and deed. And then...there are those other times...the scale is dramatically tilted in the opposite direction. When I let my worries and fears, insecurities and bitterness consume me and I lose sight of God...kind of like Peter did when he walked out on the ocean's surface to meet Jesus. He looked away. And then started to sink.

When the scale is tilted in our direction that means we are sinking. Losing focus on the one thing that truly matters, the one supreme treasure that we are to hold dear above everything else ....God!

So it's important, at that point, when we realize we are sinking and losing focus, to come back. How do you come back after you've had a moment of groundlessness..when you feel you've stumbled and tripped? Do you turn to scripture first, prayer? I'd say that I turn to the psalms and then pray...and after that my heart is open enough for meditation. Whatever one's means, it's important to take the steps to get back on the pathway to God. Someone once told me, you can take a thousand steps away from God, but it only takes one step to come back to Him.

So let's take some steps today...away from ourselves and towards God.

Heavenly Father,

We thank You for Your great mercy and grace which makes eternal union with You possible. We pray that You help transform our hearts so that our strongest desire would be to dwell in Your presence, finding supreme joy and peace in you, and not in ourselves. As we learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, in the process may we also learn to lose our attachments to self and world. Shatter our illusions so that we may be inundated with the pure reality of Your presence and Love. 

May we bring You all honor, glory and praise.

In Jesus' unmatched and precious name,

Amen.

True Hope: Beyond Intellect (Thomas Merton)

"The message of hope the contemplative offers you, then, brother, is not that you need to find your way through the jungle of language and problems that today surround God: but that whether you understand or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you ever found in books or heard in sermons."

Amen to that! Thomas Merton is a man of God whose works have touched me deeply and have had a profound effect on my spiritual approach. The above passage was from a letter he wrote upon Pope Paul VI's request for him, and others specifically selected, to write a letter to the world sharing the contemplative perspective.

In his letter Merton emphasizes the need to abandon all illusions and attachments, all notions of self and ideas, and simply reach out in simplicity and pure devotion towards God. What a beautiful message!

In his letter, Merton assures readers, " All men can seek and find this intimate awareness and awakening" and tells us,

"...if you dare to penetrate your own silence and risk the sharing of that solitude with the lonely other who seeks God through you, then you will truly recover the light and the capacity to understand what is beyond words and beyond explanations because it is too close to be explained: it is the intimate union in the depths of your own heart, of God's spirit and your own secret inmost self, so that you and He are in all truth One Spirit."

Praise be to a God who offers His children the peace of having intimate union with Him! May we be continual seekers of His presence within us as we grow deeper in our faith.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being a God of love and unending faithfulness.  A God who dwells within us. Who makes it possible, if we give you all that we are and lay down at the foot of your throne all attachments and illusions of self and world, the extraordinary experience of your deep and abiding presence. An encounter that transcends words and surpasses understanding. A peace that anchors our faith and our souls firmly to you. May we never cease to seek you more and more  and through the peace you offer may we be strengthened to go out into the world, which is weary with the weight of sin and death, and carry your message of light and love and glorify your blessed name.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Letting Go of Attachments: St. John of the Cross

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly."

                   ~ St. John of the Cross



I thought the image of a bird being tethered would be appropriate to include in this blog post, since St. John of the Cross uses it to illustrate how attachments can bind us to ourselves and our own egos, hindering us from true and unhindered divine union with God. I just want to say I,  in no way, condone such treatment to animals (I'm a vegetarian and speak out against animal abuse) and my stomach turned while flipping through images to find a decent one!

As much as I find this image disgusting...I find it appropriate and I think St. John of the Cross brings up much for us to think about. He raises good questions to ask ourselves. What is keeping us from experiencing God more fully? What are we attached to that hinders our relationship with God?...

Important questions to ponder...

How tragic to be attached to something, like that bird in the photograph, that keeps us from soaring to the unknown heights of union with God. May God illuminate to each one of us the things of this world and the things within ourselves, that we still cling to and give us the strength to let go of them and may our souls cleave to God, and God alone.

Any thoughts?

Passing Through the Dark Night

That there needed fidelity in those drynesses or insensibilities and irksomenesses in prayer by which God tries our love to Him; that then was the time for us to make good and effectual acts of resignation whereof one alone would oftentimes very much promote our spiritual advancements.
~ Brother Lawrence

There is so much one can learn from the Spirit-filled insights of Brother Lawrence. I like this quote from him because it is so real and I feel it can apply to most people, if not all, that seek to grow with God and experience Him fully.  As we progress in our walk with God, learning new insights, stretching and growing spiritually, we enter into new experiences that help shape and conform us more to Christ and helps strengthen our resolve as believers. One of these experiences that many Christian writers, monks, etc. have written about is a phenomena called "The Dark Night of the Soul." In fact, John of the Cross has a poem about this very thing titled, "Dark Night", it can be found on the "Inspiring Poetry" page of this blog.

This period in one's spiritual timeline can be interpreted by many as a time of great spiritual trial and testing. A time when the believer, removed (or seemingly so) from the presence of God, has to rely on the truest sense of their faith-believing in things that can't be seen (or felt) or otherwise proven in any tangible sense. This is when one's conviction towards God is tested and through the process, strengthened and refined. This is when our faiths are really put to the test.

It's also a time where great humility on the part of the believer is cultivated. Where any illusions of our own knowledge, strength and abilities of being means enough to be sufficient to carry us through this process are quickly vanquished. This is a time when the believer, whether literally or figuritavely, is drawn to her knees in total submission and surrender. A time when one's all is given to God and like a mirror, the believer's human brokeness, is laid bare for the soul to
observe.

Is God being unnecessarily cruel?...In Lamentations 3:33-34 it tells us of God:

³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to anyone.

God does not want any unnecessary pain or turmoil for His children.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Sometimes, in this time, our human response to the void God creates in us is to lash back at Him. To doubt, to stomp our feet in anger, in sorrow, in distress. But the fact is, God wants the best for us. And sometimes growing isn't always comfortable. Our initial reactions might not show the best side of us, but God knows us, He expects that response.  He knows the pain we will go through during this time of apparant separation. He also knows what awaits us on the other side-and He knows it is well worth it!

God wants us to be strong. He wants us to advance His Kingdom here on earth-spreading love and compassion and hope. He knows our hearts will come under attack. He knows our souls will be tempted. He knows the snares of the enemy that lay ahead on the pathway of sanctification and He wants to give us the strength, direction, clarity and conviction to pass through such spiritual snares unhindered.

He wants us to echo that of Paul's resolve when Paul so faithfully declared:

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

When the believer passes through this Dark Night of the soul, their conviction towards God is solidified and God is truly glorified for the believer goes from being drawn low and almost broken in humility and contrition only to be lifted up by the Grace and Mercy of God in spiritual exaltation, where a reoriented sense of obedience, adoration and conviction for God and belief washes the believer with the renewing sense of God's Spirit and presence once again in his soul. The believer walks into the light out of the darkness truly changed.

Humilty is a central theme to this process and a term that sometimes isn't popular in today's culture. It's importance cannot be overstated. Without a humble and contrite Spirit, we will be barred from fully experiencing God's presence and blessings. I will end this article with some verses relating to humility.

 Let me just say this first, before concluding, if you are experiencing this type of spiritual phenemona, take heart-a whole new dimension of experiencing God awaits you! Oh..and one little tip...the quicker you surrender yourself to the process, and God, admitting your weaknesses, confessing and repenting your sins and giving God complete sovereignty over your life, the quicker you move through it. 

~abundant blessings in Christ


 Isaiah 57:15 

¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One says—
   he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
   but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
   and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Psalm 51:17

¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise


Proverbs 22:4
 ⁴ Humility is the fear of the LORD;
   its wages are riches and honor and life.