God has given each of us our abilities because those are the resources needed to do the work that belongs to us — right where we are. It’s tempting to think we could do a better job if we occupied someone else’s place, but that is probably not true.
As “self-actualized” people it is hard for us to learn self-denial. Yet somehow we must learn it. We must recover the old-fashioned virtue of sacrifice — the willingness to let go of everything except that which most greatly glorifies God.
For every step we take toward something valuable, there will always be an easier step we could take toward something less valuable. In the spiritual life, we have a practical need for constant vigilance. Our focus needs to be rechecked frequently.
We may become so consumed with intellectual activity that we disconnect ourselves from the people around us and from the active responsibilities of daily living. Spiritually speaking, we can’t afford the luxury of living in an ivory tower.
There is a gap between where we are and where we want to be. Depending on whether we think of that gap as a problem to be worried about or as an opportunity to be embraced, there will be a corresponding impact on our spiritual growth.
God’s wisdom far exceeds our own, and so His gifts and His answers are not always supplied according to our timetable. When we’re faced with either God’s “inaction” or His “silence,” we need to hold our tongue and also watch our attitude.
If investments in our spiritual lives don’t require us to give up anything of real value to us, they aren’t really investments and the results won’t be worth very much. In the end, God’s value to us will be indicated by what we’ve exchanged for Him.
If we frequently experience either anger or anxiety, it is probably time to ask ourselves whether it is really our Father whom we are seeking. We must have the honesty to admit how often emotions like these are the result of frustrated self-seeking.
The God who created us said, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord.”
Jesus did not say that He taught the way to God. He claimed to BE the way. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).
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