Person studying the bible with their open laptop. By doidam10/stock.adobe.com.
An abundance mindset that expects and focuses on the positive is demonstrably healthier for us than a scarcity mindset that does not. To this end, let’s begin today with some good news demonstrating God’s continued providential work in our world, from London to Silicon Valley:
- Ten thousand teenagers gathered recently at Wembley Arena in London for a day of worship. Among the speakers was celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls, who shared his journey to faith.
- Bible sales are booming in the UK, part of what one commentator calls a “broader cultural change pointing to an awakening in society.” Bible sales are up 22 percent in the US as well.
- Vanity Fair, not a bastion of conservative religious reporting, tells us that Christianity is the “new religion” of Silicon Valley. The New York Times agrees.
Remembering that God is still on his throne is especially useful when we encounter apocalyptic stories like the one I mentioned yesterday about China’s deep-sea cable cutter that “could reset the world order.” The device is capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, which could disrupt the lives of billions of people. The US military relies heavily on these undersea data flows for command-and-control information. One writer calls the issue of undersea conflict the “soft underbelly of American power.”
From the Far East to the Middle East: the US is dispatching a second aircraft carrier to the region amid airstrikes on Israel by Yemen’s Houthis and militants in Lebanon. An IDF strike in Gaza recently killed a senior Hamas official, part of the escalating conflict in the region. As I have noted repeatedly in recent years, war in the Middle East could quickly turn global, with Russia, China, and North Korea aligning with Iran and its proxies against Israel, the US, and the West.
On days when the news makes an abundance mindset especially challenging, I’d like to point us to a way of seeing our faith that leads beyond the headlines to transforming hope.
“People want hard religion, not easy religion”
R. R. Reno is an American theologian and editor of First Things (a resource I highly recommend). After completing a PhD in religious ethics at Yale, he taught at Creighton University before moving to First Things in 2011.
Reno’s latest article for the publication is titled “The Return of Strong Religion.” It begins:
The wind has shifted. People want hard religion, not easy religion. They seek out communities that are demanding rather than permissive. They want truth-based theologies, not outlooks softened with talk of “meaning” and “dialogue.” Dialogue, a buzzword for the Baby Boomers, is out. Emphasis falls on conviction and commitment.
He notes that most Baby Boomers came of age during a time when clergy sought “relevance” and churches tried to make the faith more accessible and “contemporary.” However, he observes, “At present, young people find such accommodations disappointing.” Reno explains: “Faith inaugurates a long, arduous journey to a remote destination, a journey that will require our every strength. Rigor does not dismay or discourage. It motivates and inspires.”
As examples, he cites renewed Catholic interest in the Latin Mass as well as traditional rites and religious symbols. On the Protestant side, he points to conservative churches that call their members to “immerse yourself in the truths of the faith, which are found in Scripture,” not as an exploration of how you “feel” but as an “intellectually rigorous enterprise.”
In his view, cultural accommodation “risks weakening Christianity’s defenses against the world’s seductions” and “removes the outward signs of the church’s difference from the world, bleaching out the gospel’s supernatural claim upon our lives.”
I adamantly agree, with one strong caveat.
Beware spiritual inoculation
“Hard religion” practiced by “demanding rather than permissive” communities, while positive on many levels, can nonetheless become a religion about Jesus more than a relationship with him. It can focus so intensely on doctrine as to miss the living Presence to which doctrine points. It can make demands on us that become ends rather than means.
It was because the Jewish people came to focus more on the temple than the God of the temple (Jeremiah 7:1–12) that he eventually allowed it to be destroyed and his people exiled (vv. 13–15). It was because the authorities saw Jesus as a threat to the religious status quo that they crucified their Messiah (cf. John 11:45–53).
I am as susceptible to this temptation as anyone. Unless I constantly focus on the larger purpose behind the spiritual disciplines I have developed over the years, they inevitably become religious duties rather than opportunities for transformational encounters with the living Lord Jesus.
I can study the Bible, pray, and read devotional and liturgical literature as part of my morning routine without stopping to allow the voice of the Spirit to speak to my spirit. In this way, I deceive myself into thinking I am closer to Jesus than when I began, but it’s not true. The reality is that I am inoculated with enough of the “disease” to prevent catching the “real thing.”
Does any of this feel familiar to you?
“Ever thirsting is the secret of never thirsting”
Using religious piety about Jesus to prevent a transforming relationship with him is one of Satan’s most subtle strategies with those who practice a “hard religion” of discipline and dedication. When we fall into this trap, not only are we not experiencing the abundant life of Jesus (John 10:10)—we think we are, which keeps us in a status quo complacency rather than a passionate pursuit of intimacy with our Lord.
In this way, as Oswald Chambers warned in today’s My Utmost for His Highest, “Christian work may be a means of evading the soul’s concentration on Jesus Christ.”
The antidote is the same one Jesus offered his first followers, men and women who were part of the highly religious society of their day: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).
Here’s the difference: We know a branch must stay constantly connected to the vine to bear fruit. We forget that the same is true of our souls. To this end:
- When last were you silent enough before your Lord to hear his voice in your mind and heart (cf. 1 Kings 19:11–13)?
- When last did reading his word change your life in a significant way (Hebrews 4:12)?
- When last did your worship of God empower you to bold and courageous witness (cf. Isaiah 6:1–8)?
In Abide in Christ: The Joy of Being in God’s Presence, Andrew Murray wrote:
“It is only into the thirst of an empty soul that the streams of living waters flow. Ever thirsting is the secret of never thirsting.”
How thirsty are you for Jesus today?
Quote for the day:
“Our abiding in Jesus is even more than a fellowship of love—it is a fellowship of life.” —Andrew Murray
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