|
Today’s Scripture
Anyone who wants to keep his life will lose it. And anyone who gives up his life will keep it.
*Gospel of Luke 17.33 (WE)
Devotional Thoughts
The person who truly desires to experience his or her kinship with God, a kinship by right of creation, and grow to a spiritual kinship of loving reverence and unselfish devotion must pass through a dying to the self. The first is, again, that we are all of God by virtue of creation. The second is a being reborn of the Spirit, or being of God spiritually through divine Grace in Christ. The first is a natural kinship, the second one is chosen by us. In the first we are blessed with natural life, in the second we are graced with spiritual Life.
Jesus says that a dying from reliance on the first life is essential to receiving the second Life.
This dying that Jesus taught, we can view as the Three Gates to Life. These gates contain a paradox. Let us view them with understanding that each is part of the surrender of the natural life to Christ. And in this surrender Divine Grace lifts us to a life like unto Christ, even though slowly over time.
1. Dying to reasoning. Here, we grow spiritually to use but recognize that human reasoning is not the same as the wisdom of God. God can speak through our reason, but our reason does not discern by itself the will or ways of God. Indeed, often reason misdirects us and can misinterpret what the Spirit is willing. We die to reliance on reason and through spiritual discernment open to the intuitions of God within us and through like-hearted persons we live among.
2. Dying to willing. Our natural will is neither good nor bad, but we must die to dependence on it and, rather, seek the Will of God. Again, the Divine Will often is communicated through our will, but our will alone must be, so to speak, filled with, transformed, of lifted up to God to be empowered with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
3. Dying to feeling. Feeling is another natural gift that in itself is neither good nor bad. Feeling, however, naturally is not adequate to live the spiritual life. Feeling, as reason and will, can be a means of experiencing God, but feeling can always mislead and block reliance on the Grace of God.
Dying to over-reliance on these natural capacities is not merely a loss. Rather, a spiritual dying, according to Jesus, is only the one side of another side: Life~the release of these very capacities to be at the service of God, self, and others for the highest good of all. In this, as in many things, to lose is to gain, or in the teachings of Christ Jesus~to die is to live.
Spiritual Exercise
Think upon the things you have given up as you have grown closer to Christ.
In what ways might you be growing in dying to any of the above natural dependencies in order to grow more in discerning God’s will and ways for your life?
Brian will respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Mentor. He offers retreats, workshops, and classes in such subjects as Contemplative Prayer (he trains in Visualized Praying, Centering Prayer, Christian Meditation, The Jesus Prayer, ...); Contemplative Living; A Spiritual Understanding of the Lord's Prayer; Philippians and Spiritual Community; Spiritual Growth From Matter to Spirit; Spiritual Use of the Scripture.
See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL,see next page:
Continued... |
