“The true secret of spiritual
strength is self-distrust and deep humility.”
— J. C. Ryle (1816–1900)
The greatest privilege known in
the human life is to know God. That is the essence of true spirituality; and
the halcyon experience is the strength of integrity to know our place in life,
as well as to know God’s place in life. Getting these two perspectives
absolutely right requires a deep sense of humility and a loathing for one’s own
selfishness, conceitedness, partiality, etc. To see truthfully, that’s our aim.
Everything that is not of God
happily attracts itself to our characters. Our task, if we aim to be strong
spiritually, is to reverse that trend one moment at a time.
Our aim is to be constantly
realigned to the God-datum, such that we would be not so much beyond reproach,
but we would see the reproach coming; that we would actually be on the lookout
for it.
Going After Our Weaknesses of Character
Even though we have no shortage of
people queuing up to wrong us—because they may be, like we may be, basically
selfish and narcissistic—we would do well to view ourselves as an enemy would
view us. Not that we would hate ourselves; it’s not that at all. But enemies
observe. They have an innate interest to monitor the activity of their enemy.
If we were to get genuinely interested in the wrongs we think about and act
upon, we would learn much more and we would trust our wavering judgment just a
little less. Then we would have more wisdom, because we’re leaning on God more.
When I think of the term, Grow in GOD, and it’s not just because I’ve written a book by that title, I
think about what God desires our spiritual growth toward him to be like.
To grow in God, to become
strengthened spiritually, is about growing more in the likeness of God—in the
likeness of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The biggest barrier to Christ-likeness runs
to the character of our hearts.
If having a self-distrust is
amenable to our spirits, then we may go on in our growth in God. When we have
developed the habit of questioning our motives, and conforming them to Christ,
we gain significant spiritual strength through the obedience of our practiced humility.
***
There is much to learn in growing
toward God. What we are to learn and apply is God-consciousness. When we have
learned to get sceptical about our own motives, we begin to trust God more in
the flow of life, and we notice others’ faults less. We become spiritually
stronger when we see our own wrongs in truer light.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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