Re-Posted from "Meditations of a Charismatic Calvinist Who Does Not Speak in Tongues"
Sometimes it is easy to base our lives around one great spiritual
experience in the past. I do not want to minimize such experiences. God
told the Israelites to remember what He had done for them, whether it
was the deliverance from Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:18,19) or the splitting of
the Jordan (Joshua 4:6,7). But it is possible for us to hold on to past
victories and not go on with God. God is in the process of transforming
us into the people He wants us to be (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians
2:10; Philippians 2:13). This is pictured as an ongoing growth process
(Philippians 3:12-16; Hebrews 12:1,2; Colossians 2:19), which involves a
continuous effort to advance in the things of God (1 Timothy 4:7-10;
Hebrews 5:11-14; Romans 12:1,2). Not that we can do anything without the
Spirit of God working in us (John 15:5; Romans 7:18; 8:8), but He calls
us to be involved in working this out in our lives day by day (Titus
2:11-14; Colossians 1:28,29; Galatians 5:16). And not to just rest on
past experiences.
Good stuff Mike. The mountain tops are great but most of our lives are lived in the valleys.
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that one of the purposes of the mountain tops is to prepare us for the valleys, but in this life we cannot permanently live there.
Delete