THE SLOWNESS SPIRITUAL GROWTH CAN BE DISCOURAGING

Spiritual growth is slow and discouraging. Sometimes, it even seems that we are going backwards. Old problems and conflict re-emerge. Weaknesses often seem to be resistant to our best efforts. Even prayer seems unable to put a dent into our plenteous failures and sins. Evidently, something is going wrong?

Interestingly, the bamboo plant might offer some reassurance. Bruce Malone and Julie Von Vett write,

• The bamboo plant takes five years to mature, showing little “above ground” activity during the first 2-4 years. Meanwhile, an extensive root system is developing underground. From all appearances the plant is accomplishing little. After years of what appears to be fruitlessness, the bamboo plant reaps the benefit of its hidden activity – becoming the fastest growing plant on Earth. Nourished by years of unseen activity, at about year five, the bamboo plant sends stalks rocketing skyward at an unbelievable three feet per day. (Inspired Evidence)

Indeed, it’s comforting to see three feet of growth a day after years of what had appeared to be stagnation. But perhaps we’re not ready to luxuriate in our daily three feet of growth. Perhaps it might go to our head.

We see so many examples of spiritual self-exaltation. Paul had to warn the Corinthian church against this. To promote some needed self-reflection, he asked them three rhetorical questions:

• For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Cor. 4:7)

They were boasting about things that they had no business boasting about. I think that arrogance and self-trust are the biggest problems that confront the church. They constitute the greatest impediments to trusting in God and abiding in His Word. No wonder that God’s exquisite workmanship in our lives must be camouflaged! We wouldn’t be able to deal humbly with His artistry (Eph. 2:10)!

Pound for pound, bamboo is the sturdiest plant in the world. It’s used for scaffolding all over SE Asia. It can support unbelievable weights. It’s also incredibly light-weight. I think that the weight of our arrogance, self-promotion, and self-righteousness must first be lightened before we too can provide the scaffolding for the lives of others, as our Lord desires. However, this requires years of refinement and preparation:

• No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

This “harvest of righteousness and peace” only comes “later on,” but it does come to those who seek it, as Jesus promised:

• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

OUR RICHES AND SOLOMON’S POVERTY

There was much that the Israelites didn’t understand, even from their Hebrew Scriptures. They didn’t understand salvation or the plan of God. Therefore, God promised that He would reveal it to those who loved Him:

·       The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14 ESV)

But weren’t the Israelites already aware of the covenant of God? Weren’t they already living under the Mosaic Covenant, the centerpiece of their lives? Yes, but the Lord was referring to the Covenant of hope, the New Covenant.

Nor did the Israelites understand the “salvation of God.” Yes, it was to be found in their own Scriptures, but their eyes did not perceive it (2 Corinthians 3:10-18). The god of this age had blinded them (2 Cor. 4:4) through their hardened hearts. Therefore, God would have to reveal this salvation to them in a special way:

·       The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God! (Psalm 50:23; 91:16; 118:14, 21)

King Solomon was the wisest man in the world, but it doesn’t appear that he had grasped this salvation. Instead, the Book of Ecclesiastes reveals his painful wisdom quest to find out the meaning of life. However, with all his wisdom, we found that he was unable to penetrate the veil between this life and the next.

·       And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.  I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all [not just Godless works!] is vanity [or “incomprehensible”] and striving after wind. (Eccles. 1:13-14) 

Without any assurance of the next life, the “salvation of God” along with the meaning of life eluded him. Consequently, he was “afflicted” and grieved:

·       I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both [the fool and the wise man). Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless" [or “incomprehensible”] For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me…So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune…A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. (Eccles. 2:14-24)

From the limited perspective of his wisdom quest to understand the meaning of life, life ended in the grave, depriving life of any substantial meaning apart from the immediate enjoyment of his incomprehensible life. As a result, he hated life, even though Solomon had every joy that life had to offer – unlimited women, money, wisdom, admiration, power, and even work that he loved, writing proverbs and music.

Blindly, we put our hope on such things, convinced that if we obtain the right mate, job, income, or house, we will be happy. However, Solomon had it all but hated life.

In contrast to our human myopia, Paul concluded that if we didn’t have the assurance of heaven, everything else was meaningless:

• If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. (1 Cor. 15:19)

• If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. (1 Cor. 15:32)

It is the assurance of eternal life with our Savior that infuses our lives with meaning. It also enables us to endure the hardships, failures, and losses as Jesus had:

• …let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4)

We can endure because we are assured that joy, love, and glory await us in the next life. Because of this assurance, we can also leave our desires for revenge in the hands of our Lord. How can we tolerate loss and martyrdom? Only with the knowledge that eternity is reserved for us:

• Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

It is said that knowledge is power. In this case, knowledge is also a joy that Solomon did not know. His wisdom could not attain to it. It is a knowledge that is only available through divine revelation.

Even the Prophets of Israel sought feverishly for this knowledge. Often times, they only had a partial understanding of the prophecies that had been given them:

·       Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12)

We are the recipients of this priceless knowledge, but do we understand how rich we have been made through it?

CREATING OUR OWN MEANING IN A MEANINGLESS UNIVERSE

Can we thrive in a meaningless, purposeless world that cares nothing for us? Atheist Bertrand Russell believed that we could impose their own will and purpose on the purposeless, filling the emptiness with meaning:

• Undismayed by the empire of chance, [man determines] to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyrant that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces... [He determines] to sustain alone... the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power. (A Free Man’s Worship)

However, there are dreams that will not take wing no matter how confident we might be about them. Years later, Russell confessed that his dreams folded like a rose dropping its dried pedals:

• I wrote with passion and force because I really thought I had a gospel. Now I am cynical about the gospel because it won’t stand the test of life.

Why did his dream die? It wasn’t able to deliver what we ordinarily require. Positive affirmations are not enough. It is not enough to tell myself that all of the women love me in order to feel loved. I need something more tangible.

But why can’t we simply create our own meaning? Perhaps, it’s like trying to mentally create an imaginary family and mate, which we can enjoy in our minds without the messiness of relationships. And when we get tired of our “wife,” we can simply exchange her for “another” mental construction.

Ludicrous? Of course! Perhaps even pathological! However, this is just what we do when we exchange a genuine relationship with God and the meaning that can only come from such a relationship with our own mental construction. Yes, I can be the captain of my own ship, but this ship ultimately will not take me where I need to go.

IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE STRENUOUS OR DOES IT COME NATURALLY?

Christians have very different ideas about how to grow spiritually and to become more Christ-like. Understandably, many of us have found the process discouraging. Changing ourselves from sinners into saints is admittedly a daunting process.

Consequently, many Christians are gravitating towards passivity as opposed to actively trying to act like Jesus. The late Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, had written in favor of passivity at the expense of proactivity:

·       Jesus never expected us simply to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, bless those who persecute us, give unto them that ask, and so forth.  These responses, generally and rightly understood to be characteristic of Christlikeness, were put forth by him as illustrative of what might be expected of a new kind of person – one who intelligently and steadfastly seeks, above all else, to live within the rule of God and be possessed by the kind of righteousness that God himself has, as Matthew 6:33 portrays.  Instead, Jesus did invite people to follow him into that sort of life from which behavior such as loving one’s enemies will seem like the only sensible and happy thing to do.  For a person living that life, the hard thing to do would be to hate the enemy, to turn the supplicant away, or to curse the curser…  True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would. (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, 7-8)

Willard suggested that Christlikeness would come naturally. In one sense, He was correct. Everything good that comes forth from our lives is given as the fruit of the Spirit (James 1:17). Consequently, Paul even credited the Spirit for his strenuous efforts (1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 2:12-13), and this seems reasonable. If you truly trust your surgeon, you will do what he tells to do to promote recovery after the surgery. If you don’t trust him, you will probably slack off. This principle pertains even more so to our omniscient and omnipotent God. Consequently, obedience is a natural outgrowth of a saving faith.

However, I want to suggest that there is more to our lives than this. They should also manifest a striving-forward and a pressing-on. Although we are transformed from the inside out by the Spirit, in many ways, Jesus did command strenuous proactive service:

·       …Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust…You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48; ESV)

Of course, we will not become perfect in this world – far from it. However, we must not tire of following our Lord, but must press on:

·       And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Following Jesus can become wearisome. Therefore, it must be a focused life as well as it is a trusting life:

·       Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone…(Hebrews 12:12-14)

Striving for peace is a fruit of the Spirit, as Willard suggests, but it is also something we must pursue. If we refuse, we prove that we do not love our Lord:

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. (John 14:23-24)

Jesus didn’t suggest that we should only keep His Word when convenient. Therefore, Willard’s advice seems to be too one-sided. He suggests that we should somehow follow Jesus but only when it feels like the “happy thing to do.” To repeat Willards words:

·       Instead, Jesus did invite people to follow him into that sort of life from which behavior such as loving one’s enemies will seem like the only sensible and happy thing to do.

Willard suggested that we obey Jesus but only when it feels natural and comfortable. Somehow obedience is supposed to just happen. However, resisting sin or exposing injustice may be quite painful. Even though our obedience is also the fruit of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:10), it may require blood, sweat, and tears. It might also prove very costly, as the example of the Good Samaritan shows us. Paul compared the Christian life to running a race:

·       Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

In contrast, Willard has written:

·       True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.

While there is no greater joy than in following my Lord, it still can be a struggle. It was for Paul:

·       Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Paul was not teaching that there is anything uncertain about our heavenly inheritance, but rather that the true believer will receive it through effort. Not that the effort saves us, but rather effort is something that grows forth true faith and repentance.

Admittedly, the struggle is often discouraging. Does this mean that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere, and that we might need to step back and just be and believe? The lives of many missionaries teach us that it was often years before they saw their first convert. Adoniram Judson, the missionary to Burma, did not see his first convert until seven years had passed. Others had to wait much longer.

The struggle can be disappointing, we need the struggle. One man, seeing a butterfly trying to escape from its cocoon, assisted this incredible creature in his escape only to see it subsequently die. He later learned that the butterfly needs this struggle in order to survive.

How does this apply to us? We too need the struggle. How so? The disappointments humble us, stripping away our self-confidence, leading us to brokenness and repentance. And when we humble ourselves before God and turn to His Word for our only encouragement, He begins to give us a deeper illumination of His grace.

What happens? We are reassured that we are forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9) and that it is no longer about us and our spiritual successes but about Christ and His success and righteousness.

This is utterly freeing (John 8:31-32), and it brings us to a deeper place of gratefulness for a God who loves us, who are completely undeserving.

However, this deepened understanding and appreciation of our Lord does not come through passivity but activity.