A struggle for many of us is the heightened expectations coming out of retreats. There’s always an inner longing for change which is appropriate and good! But sometimes we can even idolize “change” rather than worshiping Jesus! Sounds strange, but it happens! Jesus is for sure the means of our change, but more importantly, Jesus is our end! Jesus is the object and subject of our worship, not change! When we appropriately have Jesus as our peace, center, and righteousness (the themes of the retreat), then change will inevitably happen. When are affections and desires are set on Jesus, our other desires will be rightly ordered. That’s where change begins.
So what does day to day growth look like? Just as repentance and faith bring you to Christ, repentance and faith grows you in Christ. Maybe during the retreat, you felt like God was asking you to take big steps of repentance and faith. By all means go for it! Don’t delay because the more you delay, there is more room for conviction to fade. But if you don’t know where to start, perhaps small steps is in order. David Powlison calls this, “steps of micro-obedience in the right direction”. Here’s a few to consider:
Learn to feed yourself
My daughter is learning to feed herself. It doesn’t come naturally of course. Sometimes she shoves food in her nose. But the key is that she keeps trying even though there’s bread up her nose. In Proverbs, he says that the “fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”. Where do we begin?
By “accepting his word, storing up commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom, and applying your heart to understanding.”
But check out how we are to do it.
By “calling out for insight, crying aloud for understanding, and looking for it like a hidden treasure.”
There’s a hunger and persistence that is there. There’s also a dependence on the one who gives wisdom (v.6) For too often, we give up too easily. Instead, we settle for letting others feed us if at all. But this reminds me of baby birds. How do mommy birds feed their young? By eating and then regurgitating partially digested food and funneling it down their throats. Recently I while I was praying, I was given this image to convict me of the fact that I often lean more on the words and insights of other pastors and bible scholars rather than relying directly from God’s word. It’s like me eating other people’s chewed up food and vomit. Don’t get me wrong. We need to feed off the preached word, but we have to believe that God does speak and give insight to every believer, not just preachers. We have to trust in the sufficiency of the scriptures to convict and breathe life into us.
Fight sin together in community
With that said, it is also important to be in community. Through reading the scriptures together we have to call out our idolatries for what they are and repent together. Far too often I afraid we have excused sin rather than fight it. But here’s how we need to see our sin:
“our sins are not pets to coddle but beasts to slay” [Ed Stetzer].
During our devotionals during the retreat, the author asked if we were rightly hating what God hates? Are we finally fed up with the junk in our lives? Until we reach that point, the desire to change will never be sustainable. Thus, its vital that as a community we are open and honest with our dealings with sin. When we do so, our hunger and need for Jesus will be even more apparent and desirable! So get together with a few brothers and sisters in order to expose our sin and fight together.
Point each other to Jesus
During the Advance Conference I went to a few weeks back, I learned this nugget of truth:
“Just as you worship your way into sin, you worship your way out” – Mark Driscoll
Since all our sin issues are primarily an issue of worship, the way out of sin is also worship, except this time on something infinitely greater, namely Jesus Christ. It wouldn’t make sense to trade one idol for another. The point of repentance is to run from sin in order to run to Jesus as our object and subject of our worship! When we gather, the goal is to show how beautiful Jesus truly is! Whether it’d be through our singing or through preaching, or through our fellowship, the point of it all is to point each other to Jesus. When we do, the allure of sin will be supplanted by an ever increasing passion, desire, and appetite for our good God and Savior Jesus Christ.
