Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Discipline
I don’t really like this word. It keeps coming up in things I am reading, listening to, and to be honest just in my thoughts. Generally when this starts happening I try to pay attention. Of all the many definitions of discipline this is the one that best conveys the type of discipline I am talking about: Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.
Dallas Willard makes the point that we cannot transform our hearts by our own will or determination. If we could follow a bunch of steps and a bunch of rules to reach the place we needed to be then Jesus would not have had to die. (Gal 2:21) But when Jesus enters our hearts and our lives it is up to us to change our thinking. The Spirit will guide us in all ways that we are trying to seek and worship Christ, and I believe only with His help can we attain transformation. To truly change the ways we think and the very ideals and imageries that are in our head is not an easy task. It does require some effort on our part. We cannot act and think just like everybody else in the world and expect that our hearts will be renovated or our lives will be transformed.
Willard speaks of memorizing scripture as one of the disciplines that will help us in our journey to transformation. Like my diet, this is one of those things I do for a while and then I backslide. I work hard to memorize certain passages only to find that I can’t remember them “exactly” anymore. But he ascertains that anyone can do this, and I know that he is right, and I am going to renew my commitment to do so.
This morning I picked up a book for a quick read and here is part of what I read:
Do not despair, thinking that you cannot change yourself after so many years. Simply enter into the presence of Jesus as you are and ask him to give you a fearless heart where he can be with you. You cannot make yourself different. Jesus came to give you a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind, and a new body. Let him transform you by his love ans so enable you to receive his affection in your whole being.*
Do you think I believe that he/she who seeks shall find?
*The Inner Voice of Love- Henri J.M. Nouwen
Dallas Willard makes the point that we cannot transform our hearts by our own will or determination. If we could follow a bunch of steps and a bunch of rules to reach the place we needed to be then Jesus would not have had to die. (Gal 2:21) But when Jesus enters our hearts and our lives it is up to us to change our thinking. The Spirit will guide us in all ways that we are trying to seek and worship Christ, and I believe only with His help can we attain transformation. To truly change the ways we think and the very ideals and imageries that are in our head is not an easy task. It does require some effort on our part. We cannot act and think just like everybody else in the world and expect that our hearts will be renovated or our lives will be transformed.
Willard speaks of memorizing scripture as one of the disciplines that will help us in our journey to transformation. Like my diet, this is one of those things I do for a while and then I backslide. I work hard to memorize certain passages only to find that I can’t remember them “exactly” anymore. But he ascertains that anyone can do this, and I know that he is right, and I am going to renew my commitment to do so.
This morning I picked up a book for a quick read and here is part of what I read:
Do not despair, thinking that you cannot change yourself after so many years. Simply enter into the presence of Jesus as you are and ask him to give you a fearless heart where he can be with you. You cannot make yourself different. Jesus came to give you a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind, and a new body. Let him transform you by his love ans so enable you to receive his affection in your whole being.*
Do you think I believe that he/she who seeks shall find?
*The Inner Voice of Love- Henri J.M. Nouwen
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One of the Tulsa Workshop speakers[I'd give credit if I could remember] said that we have taken God's greatest gifts for knowing Him -- His Word, Prayer, and the Church -- and made them 'disciplines'. In doing so, we have removed the joy and power of the gifts.
If we could regain the concepts of these as gifts from God, transformation would not be a burdensome thing.
If we could regain the concepts of these as gifts from God, transformation would not be a burdensome thing.
Yes, I believe it. But I don't think we always know what we should seek and so sometimes I'm sure that I've "found" and didn't know it yet. Does that make sense?
In my case, God is so faithful, but I'm not. Jesus did come to give me what I need...a new heart, spirt, mind and body. But it's the "let him transform you" that trips me up. Even in my best attempts, sometimes I get in His way of transforming me.
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In my case, God is so faithful, but I'm not. Jesus did come to give me what I need...a new heart, spirt, mind and body. But it's the "let him transform you" that trips me up. Even in my best attempts, sometimes I get in His way of transforming me.
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