Spiritual Prescription TRUST ONLY IN GOD
Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Ps. 40:4.
I was having a Week of Prayer one time with a group of medical students. One question that was turned in asked, "Could you please tell us how to live the Christian life in a practical, down-to-earth way? Not this Bible-study-and-prayer-and-witnessing bit, but instead give us something that's really practical."
Bible study is compared in Scripture to the eating of the Bread of Life, drinking the Water of Life. Prayer is called the breath of the soul. And witnessing is compared to exercise. So we could rephrase the question by saying, "Doctor, could you please tell us how to live a healthy physical life? Don't give us this eating-drinking-breathing-and-exercise bit, but something really practical!"
It's easy for us to miss it, because it is so simple. There is no substitute for private communication with God day by day. Family worship is significant, public worship is significant. But we must also have time alone with God for feeding our own souls.
One time a fellow minister told me that he felt that the average layman was so busy making a living, keeping body and soul together, that he could not be expected to take time alone with God, that the minister would have to do this for him, and would have to pass on what he had gained. Do you accept that? I could not.
I'd like to propose that one of our bigest problems in the Christian religion today is that people are constantly depending on people. It's nice to have people around that are on the same wavelength, the same frequency. But my relationship with Christ should never be dependent upon who is in town and who isn't. I cannot depend on other people to do my thinking and my studying and my praying for me. I must do it for myself.
The devotional life is not something that we rope off, locking God in a box, leaving Him and going on without Him the rest of the day. The focus of the devotional life day by day is to help me establish the practice of the presence of God all day long. To know God's presence moment by moment, hour by hour, throughout the day, is our goal, and His.
Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Ps. 40:4.
I was having a Week of Prayer one time with a group of medical students. One question that was turned in asked, "Could you please tell us how to live the Christian life in a practical, down-to-earth way? Not this Bible-study-and-prayer-and-witnessing bit, but instead give us something that's really practical."
Bible study is compared in Scripture to the eating of the Bread of Life, drinking the Water of Life. Prayer is called the breath of the soul. And witnessing is compared to exercise. So we could rephrase the question by saying, "Doctor, could you please tell us how to live a healthy physical life? Don't give us this eating-drinking-breathing-and-exercise bit, but something really practical!"
It's easy for us to miss it, because it is so simple. There is no substitute for private communication with God day by day. Family worship is significant, public worship is significant. But we must also have time alone with God for feeding our own souls.
One time a fellow minister told me that he felt that the average layman was so busy making a living, keeping body and soul together, that he could not be expected to take time alone with God, that the minister would have to do this for him, and would have to pass on what he had gained. Do you accept that? I could not.
I'd like to propose that one of our bigest problems in the Christian religion today is that people are constantly depending on people. It's nice to have people around that are on the same wavelength, the same frequency. But my relationship with Christ should never be dependent upon who is in town and who isn't. I cannot depend on other people to do my thinking and my studying and my praying for me. I must do it for myself.
The devotional life is not something that we rope off, locking God in a box, leaving Him and going on without Him the rest of the day. The focus of the devotional life day by day is to help me establish the practice of the presence of God all day long. To know God's presence moment by moment, hour by hour, throughout the day, is our goal, and His.
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