Nearly everyone has a spiritual mountaintop experience on occasion. Some revival experience or an “on fire for God” moment. For most of us, this is how we measure our spiritual maturity. We assume the heights we’ve reached indicate the level to which we’ve grown.
But God has a different measure of our maturity. It’s not about the peaks we’ve scaled or even the number of peaks but it is our consistency between them. The peaks are great; we need them for an occasional boost. But, they do not define us. Learning the mind of God is not a roller-coaster experience. It’s a stead climb.
This is where many Christians go astray. We let our spiritual heights determine our self image and we live off their memory while neglecting daily growth. We think we’ve stocked up on our Godward obligations and that He must be satisfied with us as long as we are satisfied with ourselves. A peak experience will indeed give us a satisfying feeling for a while and we’ll gladly dwell on it as long as we can. But while we dwell there, we can lose sight of today’s needs.
Think of the inconsistency of that. Do we feast one day and then decide that we need no more nutrition for a few weeks? No, out bodies pester us with their need for daily sustenance, no matter how well we are the day before. Our souls are more subtle. We respond to their hunger pangs with memories of past meals and expect them to be satisfied. But sporadic love isn’t love at all and occasional obedience is an oxymoron. True discipleship is consistent. We need to come to the table, daily.
Our God is not One to be appeased periodically and ignored in the interims. He is not a Santa Claus. His love for us is constant and persistent. His character never changes. His mercy is new every morning and His compassion does not fail. If our minds are being renewed to be like His, isn’t consistency a logical result? The blessings of discipleship and worship are found only in their constancy. Measure yourself not by your highs or lows, but by who you are in between them.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.”
What are we doing in our daily lives to be consistent? To have perseverance? Take a look at yourself and see what you are living off of. Come to the table and not to your memory. Who are you between the mountain ranges?
Nearly everyone has a spiritual mountaintop experience on occasion. Some revival experience or an “on fire for God” moment. For most of us, this is how we measure our spiritual maturity. We assume the heights we’ve reached indicate the level to which we’ve grown.
But God has a different measure of our maturity. It’s not about the peaks we’ve scaled or even the number of peaks but it is our consistency between them. The peaks are great; we need them for an occasional boost. But, they do not define us. Learning the mind of God is not a roller-coaster experience. It’s a stead climb.
This is where many Christians go astray. We let our spiritual heights determine our self image and we live off their memory while neglecting daily growth. We think we’ve stocked up on our Godward obligations and that He must be satisfied with us as long as we are satisfied with ourselves. A peak experience will indeed give us a satisfying feeling for a while and we’ll gladly dwell on it as long as we can. But while we dwell there, we can lose sight of today’s needs.
Think of the inconsistency of that. Do we feast one day and then decide that we need no more nutrition for a few weeks? No, out bodies pester us with their need for daily sustenance, no matter how well we are the day before. Our souls are more subtle. We respond to their hunger pangs with memories of past meals and expect them to be satisfied. But sporadic love isn’t love at all and occasional obedience is an oxymoron. True discipleship is consistent. We need to come to the table, daily.
Our God is not One to be appeased periodically and ignored in the interims. He is not a Santa Claus. His love for us is constant and persistent. His character never changes. His mercy is new every morning and His compassion does not fail. If our minds are being renewed to be like His, isn’t consistency a logical result? The blessings of discipleship and worship are found only in their constancy. Measure yourself not by your highs or lows, but by who you are in between them.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.”
What are we doing in our daily lives to be consistent? To have perseverance? Take a look at yourself and see what you are living off of. Come to the table and not to your memory. Who are you between the mountain ranges?
