Renovation of the Heart
The “Beyond Within” and the Way of Jesus
Introducing Spiritual Formation (4|4)
Pages 16-19
• A Way of Grace and Rest
• The Present Opportunity
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 23:25-29 (NIV) “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Luke 6:43-45 (NIV) “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
1 John 5:3 (NIV) This is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
A Way of Grace and Rest
“We must understand that spiritual formation is not only formation of the spirit or inner being of the individual, though that is both the process and the outcome. It is also formation by the Spirit of God and by the spiritual riches of Christ’s continuing incarnation in his people.”
What does this mean? How do you respond to this statement?
“Spiritual formation is, in practice, the way for the weary and overloaded, of the easy yoke and light burden, of cleaning the ‘inside of the cup and… the dish’, of the good tree that cannot bear bad fruit. And it is the path along which God’s commandments are found to be not ‘heavy',’ not ‘burdensome.’”
If the imagery Jesus gives to explain what following him looks like is easy and light - why does it so often feel heavy and burdensome? How would you explain this concept to someone who does not know Jesus yet?
“Love itself - not behavior, or even the wish or intent to love - that has the power to ‘always protect, always trust, always hope, put up with anything, and never quit.’ Merely trying to act lovingly will lead to despair and to the defeat of love. But taking love itself - God’s kind of love - into the depths of our being through spiritual formation will, by contrast, enable us to act lovingly to an extent that will be surprising even to ourselves, at first. And this love will then become a constant source of joy and refreshment to ourselves and others. Indeed it will be, according to the promise, ‘a well of water springing up to eternal life’ - not an additional burned to carry through life, as ‘acting lovingly’ surely would be.”
Having experienced the love of God and the expression of “acting lovingly” by humans - how would you articulate the difference?
The Present Opportunity
”If we as Christ’s people genuinely enter Christ’s way of the heart, individuals will find a sure path toward becoming the persons they were meant to be: thoroughly good and godly persons, yet purged of arrogance, insensitivity, and self-sufficiency. “
What is your response to this statement? Do you agree? Is this possible?
“Spiritual formation is something we human beings can and must undertake - as individuals and in fellowship with one another apprentices of Jesus. While it is simultaneously a profound manifestation of God’s gracious action through His Word and Spirit, it is also something we are responsible for before God and can set about achieving in a sensible, systemic manner.”
What does this mean? How do we apply it to our life?
EXTRA READING:
Albert Luthuli (1898 - 1967) who struggled nonviolently against apartheid in South Africa, said, “It is inevitable that in working for freedom some individuals and some families must take the lead and suffer: the road to freedom is via the cross.”