... a weekly letter of encouragement.
15 July, 1998
Good Morning!
SPIRITUAL SMUGNESS AND DRY ROT:
A smug faith dulls the spirit and closes the door to intimacy
with God.
The twin sins of pride and lust severely hobble
the best among us.
Listen to Blaise Pascal:
"You wanted to make yourself your own center and do
without [God's] help. You withdrew from [His] rule, setting
yourself up as [His] equal in your desire to find happiness in
yourself. And [so He] abandoned you to yourself...
"Your chief maladies are the pride that withdraws you
from God, and the lust that binds you to the earth...We are in
fact so vile that, left to ourselves...are incapable of knowing
[or] reaching Him."+
I am reminded of the self-satisfied religious professional who
stood in the temple and rehearsed to God his spiritual attainments
-- and want away empty. By contrast, the tax collector, cowed
by his wretchedness, beat his breast and muttered "God,
have mercy on me, a sinner." And God heard his prayer.
(Luke 18:9-14)
Pride - Assuming the mental posture that "I've
got it figured out. I can pull this off on my own."
Lust - Failing to reign in our wandering eyes, un-checked
imagination, and self-indulgence.
So...let me ask you:
Are you smugly satisfied with your spiritual attainments?
With your spiritual life?
Or are you profoundly aware of and grieved over your need
for more of God?
"The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise...Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
(Psalm 51:17; Matthew 5:3,4)
If you are spiritually satisfied, it is my guess that you
probably have too high a view of yourself and too low a view of
God. Isaiah addresses our spiritual dry rot in stating,
"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness
and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."
(Isaiah 30:15b)
QUESTION: Into which camp do you fall:
Spiritual dry rot? Or profound awareness of an inner need?
+"Pensees" - Blaise Pascal - Translated
by A. J. Krailsheimer, New York; Penguin, 1966
My prayer is that you are having a great week!
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