Spiritual Highs and Lows

It’s been a few weeks since we came back from our PR1ME retreat and I was wondering how everyone is doing. After speaking with many of you, I have heard only positive feedback about the retreat. At the same time, I am aware of the reality that after a “spiritual high”, a “spiritual low” may be lurking around the corner. If you're already feeling that "spiritually low”, I want to encourage you with something that has served as a boost for my spiritual life this week.

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after [Jesus] had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came …” Matthew 4:1-3a

Matthew writes his gospel to a predominately Jewish audience. One of the reasons why he wrote this gospel was to show that Jesus is truly the Messiah. With that in mind, Matthew reminded the reader through genealogy, his account of the virgin birth, and his baptism in the Jordan River that Jesus is truly qualified to be the Messiah. In Matthew 4, Matthew continues to give evidence that Jesus is the Messiah by giving account of Jesus' moral fitness when He was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness.

As I was reading Matthew 4, I noticed something that I never saw before - I realized the context of Jesus’ temptation. He was tempted after a “spiritual high” moment in his life. Can you imagine coming off a 40 days of fasting in the wilderness? It was a time when Jesus spent intimate time in prayer and communion with His Father. He was un-distracted by the demands of people and ministry. I suppose you can say that Jesus was on a retreat for those 40 days, and on a "spiritual high".

Although it might have been a “spiritually high” moment for Jesus, it was also a physically low moment for Him. He was hungry. And it was at His weakest moment, the Devil saw it as an opportune time to tempt Jesus to break faith with God, His Father, and thus disqualify His divine relationship with God. Of course, Jesus stood strong and was able to fight off the Devil and his temptations. After 40 days spent on a “spiritual retreat”, Jesus maintained His faithfulness and devotion to His Father.

And how did He do it? It’s implicit in how He battled the temptations from the Devil. He used the truthfulness of Scripture (4:4, 4:7, 10) to fight off those strong temptations. And here in lies the principle in maintaining our faithfulness to the Lord. We need to know the Word of God deep in our hearts - we need to be disciplined in the Word.

I know what some of you might be thinking. Jesus did not read the Bible. He is God and He knows everything in the Bible. You are right about that. And in Jesus’ Divinity, He knows everything. But that’s the crazy part! With His Divine power at His disposal to knock the Devil out of existence, Jesus maintained His faithfulness to the Father through claiming Scripture! And through His faith in the truthfulness of the Word, He stayed faithful in His relationship with God.

My dear brothers and sisters in the PR1ME Ministry (and whoever is reading this), if you are feeling “low” after a spiritually “high” event (i.e. retreat, conference, Sunday service, etc) can I encourage you to read the Word on a regular basis? It’s when we are in the word, we are strengthened and built up to keep our faithfulness to the Lord.

I LOVE what Richard Foster says about spiritual disciplines in his book, “Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.” He writes,

“God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means or receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.”

“The Disciplines are God’s way of getting us into the ground; they put us where he can work within us and transform us. By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done. They are God’s means of grace.”

“God has ordained the Disciplines of the spiritual life as the means to place ourselves where he can bless us.”

“When the Disciplines degenerate into law, they are used to manipulate and control people.”

I love these quotes! They help me to put the importance of spiritual disciplines (e.g. reading the word, praying, fasting, etc.) into right perspective. It’s God’s means to shower us with His grace. It’s the means in which God graciously remind us about our identity in Christ that strengthens our security in Him and empowers us to live this life with purpose. Spiritual disciplines are not a means for God to make our lives miserable by giving us more “law” or things to do. No way! It’s His gracious way to show His divine goodness to us.

Here’s something I would like to challenge you with. If you are not reading the word on a regular basis, can I encourage you to team up with one of your friends to commit to reading. There are great resources available at the church like the “Life Journal” to start it up again. I think that’s what I would love the PR1ME community to look like, people who are into God’s Word and experience His abundant grace in their lives. My goodness, I wonder what our ministry would look like if ALL of us read the word and experience His goodness! I bet you it will be crazy good!