2004-03-01 - Spiritual Mindedness

1 Corinthians 1:9, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

When we come to faith in Christ, we are reborn into a new world. It is as if we are given new desires, motives, and tastes. The things of the Spirit, which were once foreign, are now treasured and sought after. The spiritual mind maintains a conversation with God as we see with Enoch, "Enoch walked with God," Genesis 5:22. In Enoch, we see the spiritual mind interacting with God.

As many of you know I have been ill for some time. I am in to the process of recovering both physically and mentally. The most difficult part of the recovery has been my inability to focus mentally, and to a large extent, spiritually. Bible study, prayer, and the reading of theological works is now something that comes with great difficulty. I read, but often reach the end of the page and have no idea what I just read. Generally I can only read a few pages at a time before I am tired. My prayers are often unfocused, and making prayer lists helps little. The spiritual mindset that I knew before has been hushed.

In some respects, I feel like I am on the outside looking in. Fenelon mentions that Christ, when here on earth, and knowing the glory of Heaven, was unable to be excited about the glory to be found in the earthly temples made by human hands. There is clearly some truth here. Once we have tasted the goodness of God, walked with Him, fellowshiped, and communed with Him, other things pale in significance. I am not sure what to do when we find communion with the Lord distant, and walking with Him is done with difficulty. It seems that in these difficult times, we must press on and look to the Lord to restore our dull hearts.

I suspect that it is during these times that we must be most aware of temptation. We are never to let our guard down, but when we are in a weaker spiritual state, we must be ever more vigilant against temptation. One thing we can do, even when we are struggling, is seek out the fellowship of other believers. Fellowship refreshes the soul. A good way to jump start our prayer lives is to take prayer walks. This gets us out of the house and away from the distractions that naturally come with being home. As far as reading the Bible and other books goes, it seems that maybe setting small but reachable goals can aid us and encourage us to continue as we see progress.

We are encouraged in 1 Corinthians 15:58 to seek the things of the Lord. This admonition also comes with a promise that should motivate us in our striving, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

tim@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org