Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – August 24, 2019
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
Time and time again, Paul invites the people in his care to live a holistic, integrated life. It is a timeless encouragement to be a person of integrity and virtue, regardless of what you are doing or whom you are doing it with. If you take a moment to pause and reflect on your own life, do you see this integrated and consistent posture at work in your day-to-day rhythms? Or, are you struggling to keep up with all the various “selves” you present to the world – your church self, your work self, your social media self, your Friday night party self, your “with your in-laws” self – the list could go on and on.
If these various “selves” resonate with you at any level, you know this to be true: it is exhausting to manage such a disintegrated life! And eventually, no matter how long and how hard we try and present an alternative image, our true selves will eventually work their way to the surface. And so, the solution is not simply to add an “integrated self” to the mix, but means we must go all the way to the core. We need to plant seeds of integrity and health so deeply that they will grow us, by God’s grace, into true people of stability and significance.
You and I can only discover an integrated interior life when we slow down long enough to hear God in stillness and silence. As such, tending to your interior life requires a rhythm of solitude. It requires unhurried, unscheduled time with God where we actually slow down long enough to be present to God who so often speaks in stillness and quiet.
Do you have a life with God that is known only to you and him? Thomas Merton once said, “There can be no contemplation where there is no secret.” With each passing day it seems our lives are lived more and more on display for all to see. We post, stream, and tweet the most mundane and ordinary parts of our day out of fear of being forgotten and left behind. We seek validation and affirmation from others, and like a drug, the more we get the more we want. Yet this public facing life comes with a great cost when it swallows up the secret places of depth and substance that are known only to you and God.
If you want to be a public person of significance, that journey begins and is always sustained in private moments of humility and prayerful dependence!
Prayer
Father, remind us that anything we do and who we are is always derived from our life with you and the sustaining gift of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Application
Do you have a secret life with God that will sustain your public life?
Related Reading
Isaiah 55:6; Matthew 6:4; 1 John 2:3-6
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Our interior life requires a rhythm of solitude: unhurried, unscheduled time with God. #WisdomHunters #Jesus #secretlife
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