"A great fear has been at work in my mind and God has used it to arouse me to prayer. I knew a mighty man, filled with God's power. Then I saw him ten years later . . . embittered with a dead soul."
I wrote this quote in my journal as I listened to Gordon McDonald describing the resilient life. It was a wake-up call for me as I realized how easily we can slip from vibrancy to embittered despair. I've watched a couple of people spiral downward in this painful journey, and it's looking like they'll finish their lives embittered . . . with dead souls. I wish I could rescue them but my efforts to date have come to naught. They're no fun to be around. Rather than attracting people to Christ, they repel them. How sad. How tragic.
How do I guard my heart against this danger? What can keep me vital, energetic, and full of passion? What allows me to live and serve with joy, gratitude, wonder and praise?
While I don't claim to have all the answers, here are four postures of heart that help me:
1) Ask God to expand the margins of grace in my life. This enables me to forbear with others (Eph 4:2b)and be quick to forgive (Mat 6:14-15).
2) Keep no record of wrongs (1 Cor 13:5b). When I keep playing over and over again in my mind a record of wrongs committed against me, I become fertile soil for seeds of bitterness to sprout and take root.
3) Guard my heart against envy. Envy rots the bones (Pro 14:30) and is contrary to the way of love (1 Cor 13:4b).
4) Do the dailies. The dailies are those practices in my life which refresh me, recharging my batteries. Though outwardly I am wasting away, yet inwardly I can be renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16b). An essential daily for all of us is to fix our eyes on what is unseen, knowing what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:18). Prayer and time in the Scriptures are a part of this daily.
My prayer is that God will help me avoid this deadly trap. May He help you as well. There's too much at stake for Christ and His kingdom for us to be walking around with dead souls. Instead may we be attractive people of exciting vibrancy, giving life to others, as Christ is seen in us!
