Soul Shaping

The fruit of the Spirit is…joy…. Galatians 5:22

Homes have kitchens. Kitchens have counters. And on many kitchen counters today stands a plastic container labeled Joy. If that’s not enough for you, there’s also Ultra Joy in lemon scent. What is in this container marked Joy? Dish detergent, of course, for that dreaded job of washing the dishes.

So why do we call dish soap, Joy? The answer should really be obvious. Joy is a word that makes us feel good. And when we are washing the dishes, we need all the good feelings we can get. One of the reasons why we like this word is that it reflects one of the basic desires of our hearts. We want to have joy. Or to put it as we usually do, we want to be happy.

Yet, it has become rather common for us not to expect much joy these days. Even for those of us who have accepted the gospel of Christ, joy is often a word used in hymns and sermons to describe a state of being that at times feels very foreign to us.

The fruit of the spirit is love…. Galatians 5:22

It shouldn’t surprise us that Paul began his description of the fruit of the Spirit with the word love. It is the supreme indicator of our spiritual health. All other aspects of our inner vitality depend on the strength of this quality.

Unfortunately, in our modern, American culture, we are often confused by what the word love means. We use the word to describe all kinds of things we love. We love our pets. We love our house. We love our car. We love our favorite foods. We love our family. On it goes. Usually, when we say that we love something, we mean that we have positive feelings about it. The object of our love contributes in some way toward our well-being. So we love it.

However, should something no longer meet our needs, our love for it will wane. So our love is conditional. For instance, we love our favorite restaurant as long as the food and service is up to our expectations. Should that change, we may not only quit loving it, we may even find a new restaurant to love.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23a

Yesterday I had my semi-annual checkup with my doctor. After reviewing my lab work and listening to my heart and breathing, my doctor confirmed what I suspected. I’m still alive. If I want to stay that way, I was informed that I needed to lose weight, exercise more and basically do better in taking care of myself. I wish I could say that this is the first time that I’ve heard this. The truth is that I’ve heard it often enough that I could basically recite it while sleeping. So far I’ve been hit or miss at best in responding to the doctor’s orders.

The same is true when it comes to the condition of the soul. There are certain indicators that reveal how healthy the soul is. Sadly, in our modern Christian culture, we often assume that if we attend church on a frequent basis and aren’t committing crimes, then we’re healthy. However, that is not the case. Even people who have been Christians for years and are active in their churches can be found to have diseased souls that are robbing them of spiritual vitality and hindering the advancement of the Kingdom.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:16

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

One of the great truths of the Christian gospel is that salvation is by grace through faith. It comes not by our good works or by cleaning up our act, but by placing our trust in Christ’s redeeming work on the cross. Again, this is the bread and butter message of the gospel. And Christians believe it at least theoretically.

Here’s what I mean. This wonderful gospel truth of a grace-based salvation is often infected with the spiritual virus of “more.” This “more” virus is expressed on one of two ways. First, is the growing sense that you need to do more in order to be and/or stay in right standing with God. It’s more Bible study, more prayer, more giving, more serving, more, more, more.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:17

Who would have ever guessed it? Of all the characters in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the Herdmans were the only ones who seemed to actually get the message of the Christmas story. Everybody else was so wrapped up in pageant production or protecting their image that they were unable to capture the significance of the moment. But not the Herdmans. Somehow the story of a refugee couple and their special baby boy broke through, and in response they gave the best gift they could give – a canned ham.

God loves gifts like that for a couple of reasons. First, God loves gifts that come from the heart. The Herdmans couldn’t bring expensive gifts like others in the church were able to do. All they had was the canned ham that was a part of their care package. But they brought it anyhow – a gift from the heart.

And that’s why God loves those kinds of gifts. He treasures gifts that come from the heart no matter what they are. When the magi came, they brought very expensive gifts to Jesus. They had the means to do it, and it was an appropriate expression of what was on their hearts at the time. However, when the shepherds came, they likely just brought themselves. They didn’t have some tangible item to offer, but that didn’t matter. Both gifts were welcomed by God, because they both came from their hearts.

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. Luke 1:46-48

We’ve all heard of people having a Messiah Complex. These are the folks who think that they’re God’s gift to save the world as if Jesus wasn’t quite up to the task. It seems that little Miss Alice Wendleken had a Mary Complex. In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever she had been playing the part of Mary in the annual Christmas pageant for so long that she thought she was entitled to it. What’s worse, she even believed that the whole Christmas story was primarily about Alice, I mean Mary, rather than Jesus. How sad.

But is it any less sad when our own Mary Complex kicks in and we start pushing people around to advance our own cause? Hardly. While we may not demand top billing in the Christmas play, we’re going to make sure that nobody horns in on our turf. The same goes for the Josephs of the world. They can have their own battles with grandiosity which aren’t any better than what the Marys struggle with.

Strange though, the real Mary and Joseph didn’t seem to have a complex. Rather than trying to force their way to the top of the Christmas pageant pecking order, you see two people who knew who they were and what part they had to play in God’s great redemptive drama. They understood that their life’s calling was based on grace not merit.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20

Christmas has become quite the production. First, you have to drag the decoration boxes out of storage. Then as you’re unpacking the decorations, you have to find a place to put all of your other stuff so that you have somewhere to put the decorations. Once all the decorations are in place, you have to put the boxes back in storage again. If that weren’t enough, there’s always one string of lights on the tree that doesn’t work, so you have to spend an hour or two trying to figure out which of those little demon bulbs is causing the problem. It makes you want to put up a Charlie Brown kind of tree.

Then comes buying gifts for everyone. Of course, there’s the family you have to buy something for whether they need it or not or whether you like them or not. Add to that the names of people you have to buy something for because they got you something last year. I’m telling you, buying the right gifts has become such a production that it’s tempting to just give everyone cash. It’s always the right color, and it always fits. Better yet, why doesn’t everybody just trade cash? That way, Christmas won’t cost you a dime, and everybody will be happy.

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5

The movie, Shenandoah, is about a family during the civil war in Virginia. Jimmy Stewart played the role of Charlie Anderson, a cranky, self-sufficient farmer and patriarch of a large family. He had promised his now deceased wife that he would always say grace at every meal to show his gratitude to God for his blessings. However, it is unlikely that his understanding of “saying grace” was what his wife had in mind.

His prayer inevitably went as follows: “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it. We harvested the crops, and we fixed the food. We worked ‘til we were dog-boned-tired. None of this would be here if it weren’t for us, but we thank You anyway. Amen.”

…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11b-13

In this final post on the secret of contentment, I want to add some additional ways that help us develop are more contented life. As I mentioned last time, it is not necessary to work on all of these at once. But as you engage in these practices, God will do His work within you that will result in a greater inner rest. Here are the final practices that will help us all get closer to the secret.

Stay current in your confession of sin.

The unwillingness to be honest with ourselves and God about our struggles with sin will invariably impact our ability to remain content. David learned this first hand in his dealings with Bathsheba. In Psalm 32, he comments on the negative impact of trying to hide sin. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”