January 4, 2010

My New Year’s Resolution : True spirituality in 2010

So what are you thinking about as this new year begins?  Are you excited?  Are you looking in the mirror and thinking about the new health club membership or diet you’re about to begin? 

If you are like me, you may have a love/hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions.  I like the idea of a fresh start; but I have far too many past experiences that go something like this… “Try hard. Fail. Try harder. Fail again. Try even harder. Give up!”  You probably can identify.

But the real problem is that often the same thing happened in my spiritual life.  I would vow to read the Bible more often, pray longer, be kinder, get involved in…only to experience the same pattern of self-effort followed by failure.

Looking back now, I realize that my view of the spiritual life was far more developed by my secular attempts at self-discipline than Scripture. I didn’t understand the grace of God, or how the Holy Spirit works with our desires and effort to connect us in a loving and renewing relationship with Christ.

I didn’t know what it meant to walk with God, enjoy His presence, or how to overcome habitual sin patterns in my life. So many times my ignorance destined me to the “try – hard – fail” syndrome.

But I thank God that He has better things for you and me. I could not be more excited to roll out what GOD has clearly stated in His word about how to experience TRUE SPIRITUALITY!

Do you want to know how to really keep all those resolutions?  Especially the spiritual ones? Well here is a clue—you CAN’T! I can’t, you can’t and no one can! NO ONE EXCEPT THE PERFECT ONE –JESUS CHRIST.

True Spirituality is not about trying harder and harder to perform and fulfill religious requirements. It is not about the number of religious activities or external rules you can keep out of you best efforts to please God.

True spirituality is about a relationship that is rich and warm and filled with grace and power that leads to ever increasing freedom to love God and love others. It is about understanding what Christ has already done for you and learning the secret of staying connected to Him through His Word, His people, and His Spirit.

True Spirituality is not some vague mystical feeling that you are constantly trying to recapture, but a clearly defined grace-walk that teaches you how to respond to every relationship in life with His Power – not your own. It’s a supernatural life lived out in the most common and mundane of circumstances. It is Jesus living His life out through you in ways that thrill your heart, bring peace to your soul, and transform the world around you….it’s what we call an r12 CHRISTIAN.

Keep Pressin’ Ahead,

Chip

Chip Ingram on January 4, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized

4 Comments

Kenny Goodson   on January 5th, 2010

I feel that I’m at that point with God;I wonder how many decades before God reveales what the training is for? Have I misunderstood His promises? Could I be outside His will and not know it? Sincerely,

Harold   on January 7th, 2010

Kenny, I can understand your concern. 2009 brought to me a diagnosis of lung cancer, though never a smoker or any other likely causes. Because of Rom.8.28 still being in the Bible, along with Jer.29.11, I realized that all the “training” beforehand had led now to look through the cancer to what God was teaching me at the present, and the “lessons” began to come clear. I now have thanked Him for giving me the cancer-for my continued maturity, and for giving myself away to others through the lessons He has taught me which I now must share with them. Of course, there are the moments when I momentarily forget and focus on the recovery from my cancer surgery–No, God did not choose to supernaturally remove the cancer, but left it for the surgeon to begin the healing process. So in this recovery stage, I am still learning, but there have been so many opportunities to share the lessons I have already learned and I just have to say “Sorry, Father”, and move back into relationship with Him. A big part of it all was just getting outside myself and concentrating on others, and not my “thing”.

Bill Dean   on January 7th, 2010

You nailed it: “It is about understanding what Christ has already done for you and learning the secret of staying connected to Him through His Word, His people, and His Spirit.” But being the self-sufficient, autonomous people that we have been molded to be by our culture, we misread that statement. We can handle “His Word,” and then struggle with identifying with “His Spirit.” But we have no idea what it means to connect with God through “His people.” I suspect that aspect of our experience explains much about our weakness.

Ioan   on February 22nd, 2010

Hi!
First, sorry for my bad English, I’m Romanian.
I’m glad to see that your year resolution is True spirituality. I have an another confession, the oldest Christianity, the Orthodox. I see some of your DVD seminaries and I love you, without reserves. But I want ask if you can love me if my confession is another that yours? I think not!