I remember the time when I first fell in love with baseball—the feeling I got when competing. That experience started me down a path to love competition in all sports, at all levels. I remember getting married and realizing I knew nothing about truly loving another person—unconditionally, unselfishly. I remember the birth of each child and realizing I still knew very little about truly loving another person unconditionally and unselfishly. And I remember receiving the two hardest phone calls I have ever received. Each informing me of the death of a parent. I remember wrestling with what I truly believed about heaven, salvation, and eternity.
Looking back, certain experiences in life are powerful in developing and discovering who we are. Not all experiences are important, but we can look back at our own lives and say, “That was a defining moment.”
Your defining moments are not my defining moments. You have crucial moments that have shaped who you are and what you believe. Perhaps it was when you discovered you had a talent for something. Perhaps it was a negative experience, an abusive experience, or the death of a parent. Maybe it was a new season of life—your first real job, marriage, the birth of a child, a report from the doctor, or a moment when you realized you were getting old. (I detest those experiences!)
And perhaps the most powerful and life-altering experience is the religious experience we call conversion—the moment when we realize God is real and Jesus did die on the cross for me.
These experiences with God change our pasts and shape our futures. God uses the experiences of our lives to draw us closer to Him and to grow our faith. But there is a danger: our faith can shift from the God who provided the experience to seeking the experience itself.
Paul saw this happening in the churches of Galatia. They had experienced God’s grace when they responded to the gospel Paul preached. But now false teachers were telling them that faith in Christ wasn’t enough—they needed circumcision and the works of the law.
Paul asks them, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?” Then he asks, “After beginning by the means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Galatians 3:2–3).
The Galatians started out living by faith, but they were now trying to continue to live by works.
We can do the same thing.
I read and study my Bible—not because reading my Bible is the work that earns God’s favor, but because by faith I know the Holy Spirit will use the Bible to mature me. I pray—not because God will look down on me and be happier with me, but because I know the Holy Spirit will use that time of prayer to speak to me and change me.
The power is not in the discipline. The power is in the Spirit working through the discipline.
God may speak to you most through Bible reading. Another person may experience God most deeply through prayer. Another through fasting. Another through sharing their faith. Our experiences may be different because God is growing each of us in different ways.
We don’t downplay or discredit those experiences. The Holy Spirit will lead us into situations and call us to certain disciplines and practices. But let’s not lose sight of the truth: it is still faith in the Spirit—not faith in the discipline—that enables us to finish well.
There is only one way to God—through Jesus—but there are many ways Jesus uses the experiences of our lives to draw us to Him.
So, what experiences have shaped you? What experiences have brought you closer to God and matured your faith?
Give thanks for those experiences.
But don’t long for the experience.
Long for the One who meets you in the experience.
Ted Harris
Associate Pastor