The Fishing Preacher

Should true spirituality just snap into place?

2 Samuel  22:35-37 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.  You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great.  You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
   
God trains his children’s hands for battle, because he knows they will grow up in a battlefield, and not a nursery.  He does not will for us to walk in constant defeat.  Yet, so many of his children wonder why they are barely getting by.  I believe a person can save a heap of frustration if they can latch on to two concepts that the Bible teaches about spiritual development:  One, you don’t try to be spiritual; you train with God to be spiritual (Read 1 Corinthians 9:24-27).  Two, our Father God stoops down to make his children great. 

The best analogy I’ve heard to tie this whole concept together is that of three boats.  The first type is the motorboat spirituality.  This one gets religious about everything by trying to earn “brownie points” with God.  They set up rules, regulations, and things you can and can’t do to be more pleasing to God.  But you never see a smile on their face because there is no joy, and the fuel for the motor is not the Holy Spirit, but man’s willpower and ability, which are always found in want.  This motorboat mentality wants to call the shots, even though it says outwardly it lives by the Bible, and trusts in God, but inwardly the heart is saying, “I did it my way.”

Then there is the log boat.  This person’s spiritual life sits stagnant in the water because they constantly live by the motto, “Let go and let God.”  The only problem is that they let go to the extent, that they don’t co-labor in faith with God.  Their life gets used to being fruitless, stagnant, and selfish because they are not willing to trust God enough to do anything about the situation, and take no steps in faith for progress of any kind.

The third boat is the sailboat.  The sailboat is completely dependant on the wind.  But, the sails on the boat have to be trimmed to catch the wind.  That is a good picture of spirituality.  We are completely dependant on God through him being our Father to stoop down and help us; Jesus purchased our total redemption through his sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit’s power and presence inside of us telling us how God wants us to trim our sails by faith.

So how do we live out the sailboat?  You train to trim the sails, and know that you have a Father God that stoops down to help his children, because he wants them to sail!

Anytime you decide to go into training of any kind two things always have to happen:  You make cuts, and you make additions.  For example, if you want to wrestle, you cut bad food out of your diet, and you add exercises to your points of weakness.  Luke 6:40 says, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.”  Jesus Christ is the one who shows us how to train and trim the spiritual sails in our life, by walking with him in the Word of God, and in fellowship with other children of God.

For my personal training with God, there are many things in my life I’ve had to cut.  Yeah, my flesh rebelled like a cornered badger, but God was showing me how to live life to the fullest.  I hate to even say it, but one of the hardest cuts I ever made was my TV watching.  My media intake was fueling anger, lust, greed, and pride in my life.  Also, all the time I was spending in devotion to God had to be used in crisis management on my brain because my morning devotions could not compete with the junk I was dumping in on evening TV.  Now that’s for me personally, it might not be an issue with you.

The good news though, is that when God makes a cut, it’s to give us room to receive His blessings!  Struggles that I had for years lost their power.  I now spend more time in the Word.  Every night, unless there’s an emergency, we have a time of worship as a family, and I spend what’s called special time with each of my kids.  What seemed so painful in the flesh and “life-threatening” (I know, I feel dumb even saying it, but I was addicted to TV, okay) at the time is now a no-brainer.  I’m not wasting so much time and energy in the struggles I used to have because I’m not feeding them anymore.  God’s training will enable you to do the right thing at the right time, because your spiritual sailboat is in a position to be blessed, and full of power.  And that is life to the fullest.

Email any questions about life and faith to the Fishin’ Preacher at : ajeffers@fidmail.com OR you may write to: St. James Christian Church/Att: Fishin’ Preacher/P.O. Box 356/St. James, MO. 65559

By  Aaron F. Jeffers, Senior Minister
St. James Christian Church - 573-265-3478