Faithful on Fridays Blog

Discipline to Delight: Part One

Imagine yourself sitting in the crowd as Jesus encouraged His listeners to be ready for His return. I’d be on the edge of my seat with delightful anticipation, however, as you read His words watch for those verbs,

Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Luke 12:35-37, 40

How do you get dressed for action? What lamp needs to keep burning? Jesus loved parables and these lower stories help us understand His point. The lower story uses the physical realm of life to direct us to the upper story, the spiritual realm of life, therefore, getting spiritually dressed is like putting on spiritual clothing. Paul wrote:

… and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Colossians 3:10, 12

When we receive Christ we ‘take off’ the old man and put on the ‘new man’, like a piece of clothing. Intimate prayer is like that; spending time in the presence of the Lord is like getting dressed every morning. Time, that dreaded word, has been set apart for God. When we make our relationship with Him a priority in our day everything seems to go smoother. We may still experience frustrations or injustices but when we’ve had Facetime with the Savior, they don’t seem as crucial.

There are tried and true methods of connecting with God, ways to keep that lamp burning (lower story) and maintaining your passion for Him (upper story). Try one these passages: Ps. 18:1-3, 42:1-2, or 63:5-8. You’ll find yourself moving from the discipline of prayer into a delightful experience with God.

Here’s a simple method:

1. First, take a deep breath and acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s presence.
2. Next, read the passage silently.
3. Then, read it silently again, slower, watching for words the Spirit highlights.
4. Read it aloud this next time, listening to the Spirit as He illuminates something personal to you.
5. Feel free to stop, talk to the Lord; make it an easy conversation.
6. You may need to change pronouns to make it personal: ‘you’ becomes ‘I’.
7. Think about what you read, contemplate it’s meaning in your life. Discuss it with God and write down your thoughts.

Jesus is calling you into a deeper relationship with Him before He returns but relationship comes by spending quality time in His presence; you’re the only one who can open that door (Luke 12:36). Do you sense His voice calling to you, Come away, My Beloved?