Inner Strength

 

The availability of God given inner Strength

2 Cor 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Rom 12:2ff

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind;

Isaiah 40:31

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

 

My dear friends,

A blessed New Year to you all in the name of Jesus Christ!

 As we begin a new year, let me reiterate that Jacob’s Ladder provides for a fellowship of a spiritual nature. It does not intend to be any kind of social fellowship ever, with a meet and greet, and food and fellowship and devotional activities of sorts. As such, it neither needs nor supports buildings, rituals, worship, mission, or donations. It is the other side of social holiness. It is an invitation into personal holiness. The godly ability of the follower of Jesus. That is our exploration, and that is our reality.

As for these posts, all are at dreliatjacobsladder.blogspot.com and at some point will move into visual presentation, probably both via Podcast and Youtube. The readership has steadily increased, because the need is clear, and is not being effectively addressed. So, out of a peaceable ‘retirement’ of sorts from the church, dedicated to using my time serving the community through Elder Services, running the State’s Home Care program, and the State’s Elder Abuse program, and then working with local Affordable Housing needs on the Vineyard, I am pulled into a duty that involves being both ‘pointer’ and witness. In that sense, I am a guide. Nothing more.

If a thing is not doable I will not speak of it, nor will I deal with belief or hope. God is far more concrete and real than these. Mustard seed faith is all we need for starters, and from there it is a jump into a new reality, one which we all can make. If you would walk this path, follow carefully, and waste neither time (which is life) nor energy, on the negativity we all encounter in life. And there is a lot around.

Last week we looked at 3 aspects of the light of God. We begin the year by looking at them individually, as aspects of the mind of Christ. And we begin with inner strength. And what is that? Certainly not some herculean story about Samson and Delilah; or a Nazarite vow to God that also involves not cutting one’s hair. So then? In a word, inner strength is resilience.

How do we describe this? How is it attained? What is its result? Resilience = being quietly strong, unswayable and capable of demonstrating both tough love and strong grace. Never a matter of faith or of belief, but always one of will and practice. And then, it comes in incremental change that is seen and experienced and takes us from one measure to a greater measure.

 A song break…It Is Well With My Soul…

 If anyone decides to be connected to Jesus i.e. to be linked to him, to be a branch connected to the vine, then the power to use will and practice godliness starts becoming a reality.

1.    It is a decision. Not a ‘for Christ’ or a ‘to be saved’ decision. Or ‘to escape hell and damnation!’ But simply to be linked to Jesus and to always stay linked to Jesus. To respond and follow an invitation. Once that begins, the next steps and the ends take care of themselves. We learn and grow in different situations, different localities, different challenges.

2.     And once that decision is made, the relationship must be seen to and nurtured. Once we enter into a relationship with Jesus, we are expected, as with a relationship with someone with whom we want to have a relationship, to make the effort to grow the relationship. How? By the things we do! And here, in relation to others! We know this. It means to walk with. As opposed to ‘pray to’; or ‘worship’. These acts are mildly relational. That which is truly relational pertains to thought, word, deed. All are actions. ‘Walk with’ is behavior specific and is the only results-oriented method to walk the way of Christ. The rest too easily becomes emotional experience that feels good but does not move us forward! Singing a song like ‘On Eagles wings’ might feel wonderful and uplifting, but it will not lift you up, even though you might feel that way. The real uplifting is when you move resolutely through darkness into light, realizing that there is light that is leading you through!

3.       The Christian headed for God given ability and spiritual power i.e. the power of the human spirit that is enabled by God, cannot afford to allow emotional states to dictate behavior. Only godly thinking must do this. And when we fail at this? Then we reverse course. We try again, we fix it, and get it right. The just man falls down 7 times and gets up! Who knows what the 7 times refers to for each of us? It is to persevere. Then the results take us forward. Spirituality is not emotionalism. It begins with it, certainly, But it does not stay there.

4.      Holiness is not a feeling. It is more than a feeling. It may start as a feeling, but it does not stay there. It grows and becomes an ability, an action -  in thought, word, and deed.

 What I am getting at is that the interpretive tradition has confused the critical issues. It has unwittingly grounded us in emotion, accepting that if worship feels good it must be godly. But that is not so and we all know this. Why? Because if this were to be true, then godly worship would have a direct connection to godly behavior. And anyone who has served in any church for years knows that this is not so. In reality, the church is filled with the ongoing nuancing of human preferentialism. The rich have more say. The wealthy decide what any one church should do or not do. And so on. No need to get preachy about it. If you take the $ out of a church, most churches will soon fail. Why? Know the difference between that which is sustained by the power of the spirit and that which depends on the economy of the world to move forward. God is not of such. Bottom line – there is most of the time no real spiritual change. Just a lot of emotionalism and social relationships; and there are occasional adventures into the real social holiness that works to make the world a better place.The challenge for church work is to build spiritual fellowship out of social structure and move it beyond.

Beware then of the ‘persuasion’ of evil disguised as many other things, in all places, versus the ‘strength’ of godliness. One will make you comfortable but will use you; the other will not give you anything but the ability to will what is needed and make it so. God is calling us continually into a higher state than that which we are presently in. The closer we get, the stronger we become, and the more capable we are of doing what needs doing. It is Jesus saying ‘come up with me’. See from my perspective. Act with my strength of will. Say to a thing  ‘Be gone!’ and it will go, be it of mind, body, spirit or of the context in which you live. Hence the fig tree. And the storm at sea with the disciples in a boat. And all of the healing.But it takes work, hard determined consistent grace filled effort on our part. Grace filled? Always patient, always cool. It is our will to be close to God that brings success and triumphs in the end.  This is an effort that each one of us can only ask ourselves about and answer.

The journey of discovery that we are on is described a little in that short reference in Romans 12:1-2 that speaks of not being conformed to this world, but of being transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we may discern what is the will of God – what is good, acceptable, and perfect. And then align ourselves with such a godly reality. In doing so, divine grace breaks in upon the sinful reality of this world. You see, to be a follower is to be an agent of God. You trust no one, you depend on no one. You might have a small circle of dependable friends, neighbors, Christians, non-Christians; it matters little who they are. What matters is their consistent actions, for these will identify them.And finally, as for the waiting, it is not a leaning into the future by faith; it is an active listening. Carefully, closely. They that wait are those who are not impatient to do their own will but hear the will of the Lord and synchronize their own wills accordingly. Then when you are sure, you run. Or you walk. Maybe you even fly! And it is all possible because you are not alone! It all depends on where you are and what exactly is happening. Practice that little bit about ‘be still and know.’ And the Lord our God be with you in all things, through Jesus our Lord and Savior. Every blessing, G.