This morning’s sermon looked at three principles for spiritual growth. Matt 7:24-27 reminds us that there are only two kinds of people in life: those who hear and obey God’s words and those who don’t. If the foundations of our lives are solid, we will flourish and grow, so it is important to look at how we can do this and be wise. The three principles outlined are found in Psalm 1:1-3 and Joshua 1:7-8:
- Meditate on what God says
- Obey what God says
- Blessing comes from God
Meditate on the Law
It is vital for our spiritual health that first of all we learn to hear what God says is true and that we then go on to build our lives on that solid foundation. Phil 4:8 needs to be the criteria by which we judge truth. We need to have a secure understanding of what is true, based on what God says rather than on our own thoughts, other people’s ideas or the enemy’s lies. Some of the truths we looked at are given in the David Crowder song ‘Here’s My Heart’:
‘Cause I am found, I am Yours.
I am loved, I’m made pure.
I have life, I can breathe,
I am healed, I am free.’
These are truths found in God’s Word. We are found. Once we were lost, but we are like the lost sheep rescued by the Shepherd. (Luke 15:1-7). We belong to God. (John 8:47, Acts 27:23) He gives us life and breath. (Is 42:5, Rom 4:17, 1 Tim 6:13) He brings healing to us. (Ps 103:3, Is 53:5, 1 Pet 2:24) He sets us free. (Gal 5:1) We need to make sure that our understanding of who we are is rooted in who God says we are.
We then need to focus on who God is – strong and sure (Ps 9:9, Ps 24:8, Ps 61:3); life itself (Jn 6:33); the God who endures (Dan 6:26) and who is light (John 1:5, 1 John 1:5); God with us (Matt 1:23, Matt 28:20, Heb 13:5, Ezek 48:35); the God of love and grace (John 3:16, 1 John 4:8, John 1:16-17); the God of hope (Rom 15:13, Ps 71:5, Col 1:27); the One who is more than enough for us (Phil 4:19).
Obedience
Doing what God says is next. So often, we can ignore what God is saying to us or rationalise it (as Abraham must have done when he agreed to Sarah’s suggestion to sleep with Hagar, settling in his own mind for second best rather than waiting for God to move.) The best response is, however, to surrender to God and to obey. There is no such thing as hypothetical grace or hypothetical freedom: we only actually experience freedom once we obey!
Be Blessed
God has promised that blessing and prosperity will follow obedience, but there are no shortcuts to blessing. We have to go the way of the cross (Luke 9:23-25), accepting that Jesus’s teachings are hard. (John 6:53-60) We have to be prepared to lose everything for the sake of the gospel (see Phil 3:7-11) in order to know Christ. Missionaries such as Hudson-Taylor saw God move in miraculous ways, but they were prepared to sacrifice everything for His sake. We cannot cahse the blessing, but must chase after God’s heart, and cannot choose the order to suit ourselves: blessing first, then obedience and meditation as a final optional extra. Instead, we have to do things God’s way: feeding ourselves on God’s Word so that it becomes our source of strength, life, wisdom and power, obeying it so that we train ourselves in godliness and receiving God’s blessing as He bestows it.