God-given dreams

Train Yourself to Be Godly #11: Practicing Godly Generosity

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*Training yourself to be godly will include being generous like God.

According to one online source, there are 3,871 Self-storage facilities in Canada as of November 2025. (https://www.poidata.io/report/self-storage-facility/canada/)

People store anything and everything from exercise equipment to furniture to heirlooms and extra clothes. One of the growing storage needs has been RV storage lots because people spend thousands of dollars on something they only use a couple of weeks a year. The average Canadian has way more stuff than they need.

Here’s the question we want to ask of God’s word today: How do we train ourselves to be godly in light of our stuff? How do we handle our resources righteously?

Let’s talk about how to handle our resources righteously:

1.         Practice Tithing

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 says, “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—… Doing this will teach you always to fear the LORD your God.”

Tithing was really important to God as he makes clear in Malachi 3:8-9.

“Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!

“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’

“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me.

God clearly tells the Israelites you are suffering because you are cheating me. You are not giving your tithes and offerings. God expected it. We need to consider the Discipline of Tithing.

Some suggest Jesus never told us to tithe but look at Matthew 23:23: “… you Pharisees. Hypocrites! …you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.” Tithing was such a big part of the Jewish faith that Jesus only seems to mention it in passing, but assumes that tithing will be part of their life.

2.         Do not Covet!

Commandment number ten of the Ten Commandments says this: “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17).

Tithing is about giving back to God from what God has given us. To “not covet” is to be satisfied with what God has given to us. When we covet, we are not satisfied with what we have. We think we are lacking something, missing out.

Part of the issue here is that we don’t need as much stuff as we think we do. We would do well to figure out how to practice the Spiritual Discipline of Simplicity and make do with less.

Beyond Tithing and Not Coveting, we need to consider Generosity.

3.         Practice Generosity

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

Not only is God generous with physical blessings, but God is also generous in giving us salvation! “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.: (Ephesians 2:8-9).

So, as we look at training ourselves to be godly, how can we be generous like God? We could be generous:

  • With our money. “God loves a cheerful giver.” – 2 Corinthians 9:7
  • By practicing hospitality. “Practice hospitality.” – Romans 12:13
  • By sharing material possessions. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” – 1 John 3:17
  • By sharing food. “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.” – Proverbs 22:9

And as we are generous, look at what will happen: “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor” (Proverbs 22:9).

Be generous like our generous God by practicing some of the following disciplines:

  • Discipline of Tithing – giving at least 10%
  • Discipline of Stewardship – careful deliberate managing of the resources God has given.
  • Discipline of Simplicity – not gathering and holding on to so much stuff
  • Discipline of Generosity – reflecting God’s generosity in how we are generous to others.

What discipline will you put into your own Spiritual Life Training Plan?

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Train Yourself to Be Godly #9: Created to Work

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*Training yourself to be godly may include how you view your work.

The average person spends 90,000 hours (that’s around 10 years) over the course of their lifetime working.[i]

A 2023 survey of Canadians suggested 80% of workers were satisfied with their jobs. At the same time, another survey indicated 33% of workers plan to look for a new job next year. .

60% of workers feel burned out.[ii] 77% of workers reported experiencing work-related stress.[iii]

One statistic stated: Only about a quarter of employees worldwide are actively engaged in their work.[iv] Though many seem to find enjoyment in their work, it’s not uncommon to hear people saying they are “Working for the weekend” – or “Thank God it’s Friday”.

Even some of our jokes are funny because we generally live in a society that doesn’t like work.

My boss told me to have a good day, so I left and went to the beach.

My boss told me I’d missed too much work lately. I told him I hadn’t missed it much.

We often think of work as fulfilling duties regularly for wages or a salary. It’s about making money. Yet there is more to it. Work is also exerting strength or energy to do or perform something; it involves being creative, using skill, and producing something.

Work shows up very early in our Bible.

Often, the first thought about work is that it’s a result of the Fall, or a result of humanity’s sin and God’s judgment. Genesis 3:17-19 gives God’s judgment on Adam: “the ground is cursed because of you.” We see life becoming more difficult as a result of sin.

But this does not say that work is a result of the Fall. The judgment is not work. The judgment is difficult and sweaty work!

While we tend to think of work as a result of sin, it is actually part of the world before sin. God tells Adam in Genesis 2:15 that he has a role to play in this garden God made for him. He is to “Work it and take care of it” (NIV).

Even before that, in Genesis 1: 28 God gave the people he created a role to play in creation: “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’”

Work is not a result of sin but was the first responsibility and role for humans! Along with being fruitful and multiplying, people were to govern and reign. Work is part of that governing and reigning, doing what is good for the world around us.

Work is about contributing to the good of our world. We all need something meaningful to do with our lives. We all have ways of contributing to the good of our world – to “work” in some way.

God has blessed us all with various gifts and passions and skills. Many of us have learned other skills through formal education or experience. We have gained ways of working and contributing to the “governing and reigning,” the “ruling” over the world that God created humans to do.

Hopefully, you have a job that you are created for, that fits, that feels like you are being who God created you to be! If not, ask Him to guide you to where you fit better.

As we think of Spiritual Disciplines and Practices associated with work, there are a few that we will look at in the next blog, but here’s one: The Discipline of Serving.

Mark 10:45 says: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Discipline of Serving says, “I will choose to use whatever abilities and skills I have to work for the betterment of others, serving them. Not working for my own benefit alone, but also for theirs!”

We are created to work and have the opportunity to serve others in the process.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

[i] https://www.worldofwork.ca/by-the-number

[ii] Calm’s Voice of the Workplace Report

[iii] APA’s Work in America Survey

[iv] https://www.worldofwork.ca/by-the-numbers

Train Yourself to Be Godly #8: Honouring Your Body in a Way That Honours Christ.

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*Training yourself to be godly may include honouring your body.

So you must honour God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

There is a website that lists 20 Famous Temples to Visit Once in Your Lifetime. These are incredible works of art and design.

A temple not on the list but would have been great to see is King Solomon’s Temple. Before Solomon built a temple, God had Moses and the Israelites build a Tabernacle, a tent. This is described in Exodus 25 – 40. We are given all kinds of details about what the Tabernacle was to be like, how to design it, what colours to use, who was to design and build or sew it, and what kind of furniture was needed.

And then we come to Exodus 40: 35. “Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle”. God came and lived on earth in the temple. Leviticus goes on to explain the role of priests who served in the tabernacle and details about sacrifices that were done at the tabernacle.

Many years later, when the Israelites are in the Promised Land, God asks Solomon to build Him a temple, a more permanent place of worship. There are four chapters in 1 Kings dedicated to describing the details of this temple (1 Kings 5-8) including measurements and designs and decorations to be used. 2 Chronicles gives us even more details about the temple in another six chapters(2 Chronicles 2-7).

“When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple. The priests could not enter the Temple of the Lord because the glorious presence of the Lord filled it” (2 Chronicles 7:1-2).

God comes in fire and smoke to dwell in the Temple. God comes to live in, dwell in this Temple, and He gave very specific, detailed instructions to ensure it was designed, built, and furnished just right. Think about how much detail, all those chapters of details, went into this place that God would choose to live in here on earth.

The Bible tells us that God no longer lives in a temple of stone, but in the hearts of believers. In 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17 we read: “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”

Did you catch that? Now, the temple is us!!

Let’s look at one more scripture. 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body.”

God is no longer living in a physical building, but in His people, and specifically in each one of us as believers. And the exhortation is to “honour God with your body”.

John 14: 23 says, “Jesus replied, ‘All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them.’”

Jesus, by the Spirit lives in us! The Father by the Spirit lives in us! We are the temple of God.

The phrase, “So you must honour God with our body” comes after a warning to flee sexual immorality. Many, if not all sins we commit, we do by using our bodies.

  • We lie by using our mouth.
  • We listen to gossip by our ears.
  • We lust for things with our eyes.
  • We dwell on temptations with our minds until we act on them or say no to them.
  • We hit with hands and use our feet to walk into places we shouldn’t.

But the very same body can…

  • Use the mouth to speak words of encouragement.
  • Use the ears to listen to a grieving friend.\
  • Use our eyes to see the needy around us and help them.
  • Use our minds to consider ways to help others.
  • Use our hands and feet to help in practical ways – and to walk into church and lift our hands in worship!

We need to honour God with our bodies, to recognize that we are the Temple of God, and then to invite Him to take up residence in our lives as he did at the Temple. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill you as you surrender your body to be used for his honour.

We will look at a few spiritual disciplines next week, but for now, as you think of training yourself to be more godly, recognize that your body is a gift from God that He chooses to live in, so honour God with your body.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Train Yourself to Be Godly #7: The Encouragement of Fellowship

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*Training yourself to be godly may include fellowship and community.

It is a joy to be part of a church family that truly loves each other and cares for each other. There are some churches where people are truly experiencing fellowship as they encourage each other to become more like Jesus.

Hebrews 10: 19-25 gives a great description of what this fellowship can and should look like. It begins with a reminder that all believers are together in their relationship with Jesus. “We” can boldly enter the Most Holy Place – we – not just you, or just me, but the idea is that “we” can. And not just the people of the Old or New Testament. Not just Jews.

He is using inclusive language – as in “we are in this incredible journey of relationship with God together.” We are all on the same road to heaven, not on a bunch of unrelated individual roads or journeys, but we are on this journey of relationship with God through faith in Jesus together.

And then, in verses 23 -25, the author describes how we should be encouraging each other in our life with Jesus.

Verse 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm…

Let “us” hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm. “Us”. We are not clinging to that hope – that life raft – by our self. Our hope in Jesus is not something we have to hold onto alone. We are invited to hold onto our hope in Him together!

Verse 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Let “us” think of ways to motivate one another. This may require a little creativity, we need to find ways of encouraging each other. The NIV says it like this: let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

The Greek word for “spur” actually means: provocation, stirring up, sharp disagreement. We are to provoke one another to good deeds.

So the NIV is right. A spur in the side of a horse gets it moving. A spur in your side from a Christian brother or sister may get you moving in the right direction as a follower of Jesus – provoking you to consider getting involved in acting out your faith. We are to stimulate our brothers and sisters in their journey with Jesus.

Our journey with Jesus was never meant to be a solitary voyage. I have a friend who loves canoeing. This summer, he went on a 10-day canoe trip, all by himself. While that is fun for him, that is not the right picture of the Christian life. The Christian life might be best pictured by a voyageur canoe, or those Chinese Dragon boats. It is many people working together and pulling in the same direction.

Verse 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another…

There are some who think they can have a personal faith in Jesus and a relationship with God, and they don’t need anyone else. That is not the picture of the Bible. We need to be intentional about meeting together. This is about more than joining others in a worship service but to meet together to encourage each other in our Christian life.

We need each other. We need to meet so we can spur each other on. We need to live life in connection with each other.

To encourage one another is to give one another courage. There are times one person has more courage than another. One person’s faith is stronger at one point than another. One person is discouraged or un-couraged and needs to be en-couraged!

Let’s finish with something practical. Here are some “Fellowship Questions” you can ask of each other when you meet with another believer. Move beyond the weather and sports and the latest hobby you are learning to finding ways of encouraging each other in our walk with Jesus.

1.         What have you been reading in the Bible lately?

2.         What have you been learning about your walk with Jesus?

3.         Do you have sense of how God is using you or wants to use you to love and do good deeds?

4.         Where are you discouraged or feeling down in your life?

5.         How can I encourage you or pray for you today?

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Train Yourself to Be Godly #6: Fellowship and Community

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*Training yourself to be godly may include fellowship and community.

Because of our North American independent mindset, many of us have missed the point that much of scripture addresses the Christian life with an expectation of connection. This is expressed and experienced in fellowship and community.

A simple definition for fellowship I heard is this: it’s two fellows in a ship. While this gets to the idea of fellowship, it is much more than two or more people in close proximity.

Fellowship (koinonia in Greek) is about “partnership, participation, sharing, communicating, and communing together”.

David Mathis defines fellowship as “less like friends gathered to watch the Super Bowl, and more like players on the field in blood, sweat, and tears, huddled in the backfield only in preparation for the next down.”Fellowship is joining in together with others to encourage and comfort and lift up. To do the “one another’s” of the Bible to each other: love one another, encourage one another, and so on.

Community is another word for fellowship. John Mark Comer describes it like this: “From coming together on Sunday for worship or eating a meal around a table to practicing confession to entering into spiritual direction, therapy, or mentorship – community is how we travel the Way together” (Practicing the Way). Community is experienced when we get to know each other well enough to be there to encourage, strengthen, or lift each other up when needed.

You may not think of Fellowship, or Community, as a spiritual practice, but they are. They are part of helping us to grow in our relationship with Jesus. This is one of the reasons that Hebrews 10 tells us to “not neglect meeting together… but to encourage one another”. They are practices we can choose to join into with purpose.

Fellowship and community are more than just being part of a church or attending every Sunday. Often, fellowship and community are experienced with a close friend or two, or in an intentional small group that meets regularly to help each other grow in their faith.

Stephen Macchia  suggests that fellowship and community are defined and experienced by the following:

  • Faithful presence
  • Honesty and transparency
  • Mutual submission
  • Confession and forgiveness
  • Joy: Laughter and tears
  • Listening and empathy
  • Attitude of gratitude

All of this can be summed up in being open and honest with a few people you trust so you can walk with them and they with you through your life journey with Jesus.

I encourage you to find a few good friends or join a small group, where you can get to know each other and care for each other in real, meaningful, and practical ways. Do this intentionally and you will be practicing fellowship and community as spiritual practices.

Watch for more on fellowship next week.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Train Yourself to Be Godly #5: Other Spiritual Practices of Prayer

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*Training yourself to be godly may include a rhythm of prayer and fasting, prayer and solitude, and listening or conversational prayer.

Last week, we talked about the spiritual practice of prayer. We have the privilege, as children of our heavenly Father, to talk with him about everything in our life. We can pray about all our concerns and thank him for all he has done for us.

There are a few other spiritual disciplines that are tied to prayer. It may be that you pray often, but haven’t tried some of the practices below. Or maybe you have tried them but have not intentionally made them part of the rhythms of your life. Check them out and ask God for direction on which one to try this week and which ones to incorporate into your walk with God.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: Prayer

The first practice is simply prayer but being intentional about determining when and where and what you will pray about. You could develop a prayer list about whom or what to pray for and schedule a regular time of day to pray. If you want to grow in your relationship with Jesus, you need to pray.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: Prayer and Fasting

Scripture is clear that fasting was part of people’s lives as they sought God – and usually prayer goes with the fasting. In the book of Esther, Esther asks Mordecai to tell her people to fast. She doesn’t ask them to pray, but that is the assumption – if they fast, they will be praying. They were fasting in order to hear from God and for God to give direction to Esther.

Fasting is simply going without food for a meal or two, or day or two. Some choose to fast for a week or more. Some emulate Jesus and his forty-day fast after his baptism. Some choose to fast by removing something else of importance from their life besides food, such as fasting from technology, or that special hot drink you like. The goal is to demonstrate that one’s desire for God is greater than our desires for other things.

You might want to include prayer and fasting in your walk with Jesus.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: Prayer and Solitude

Payer is talking with God. At other times it is just sitting and resting in the presence of God. To be in solitude. This is a hard one!

We fill our lives with busyness and with people and noise. Maybe you want to practice the discipline of Solitude – just stopping and being with Jesus. Sometimes I see this as having coffee with Jesus. Grab a coffee and just sit in prayerful thought as if Jesus is right there having coffee with you. This is less about what you need from Jesus and more about just being in his presence.

Wait. Maybe Jesus will say something – impress a certain thought or scripture on your mind. Maybe even give you direction for the day.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: Listening Prayer/Conversational Prayer

Very often, our prayer time is a time of giving God a list of requests and thanking him for what He has done. Sometimes we sit in solitude enjoying being in His presence.

We also need to take time to specifically listen to God. This is not about getting through my list and going on with my day, but taking time to ask God questions and wait for His answers. It is about listening for His still small voice, or a sense, or a reminder of a scripture.

For me, listening prayer works well with a journal, I write down my conversation – what I am saying and then what I think He is saying. I then ask another question to clarify or to learn more, like in any conversation.

I encourage you to slow down and spend time with God, listening and talking with, not just to, God.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Train Yourself to Be Godly #3: Spiritual Practices of Scripture Memorization, Meditation, and Studying

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*Training yourself to be godly includes memorizing, meditating on, and studying scripture.

Last week I introduced Scripture Reading as a spiritual practice to train ourselves to become more godly and become friends of Jesus. Many people read the Bible, at least to some extent. This may be reading a few verses a day or reading through the Bible in a year. While there is great value in reading scripture, there is great benefit in going beyond reading alone.

So, yes, have a plan for reading the Bible regularly, but also think of going beyond just reading to memorizing, meditating on, and studying scripture. Reading can help us get the big picture of scripture and help us understand what God has written and what Jesus has said. I would like to encourage you to find a way of intentionally internalizing what you read.

Scripture Memorization

Psalm 119:11 says,

“I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.”

Memorization is to hide God’s word in your heart. By spending the time in scripture it becomes embedded in your memory.

At a recent worship service, the pastor started quoting Psalm 23. As he did, he coached the congregation to quote it with him. It was impressive to have many in the congregation reciting Psalm 23 from memory. The congregation had hidden Psalm 23 in their hearts.

I want to encourage you to begin memorizing. You don’t have to start with long scripture passages, but start by memorizing a verse a week. You could start with Psalm 23 or a passage from Paul’s letters like Philippians 2:1-11 which describes the humility of Jesus in coming to earth.

Scripture Meditation

Meditation is to think on a verse over a longer period of time. If you are memorizing a verse and mulling it over in your mind, you are also meditating on it as you continue to let it speak to you.

Psalm 119:15 reads: I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

To practice meditation is to spend time thinking and praying and talking to God about one thing, one verse or one statement about God.

Meditation slows us down as we focus on one idea for a period of time. It may be one verse or one phrase that describes God or a theological or doctrinal statement that we can think over as allow God to speak to us over time.

Scripture Study

Maybe you have read the Bible a lot, but you realize you haven’t really stopped to study it – to take time to understand certain passages of scripture or a certain book. You can use different online helps (Biblehub.com) or commentaries to dig a little deeper.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 we read:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If we long to be more godly and want to train ourselves to be so, studying moves beyond reading, memorizing, and meditating, to dig into what words and phrases and verses mean.

I encourage you to move beyond devotional booklets like the Daily Bread, and others. While they have good stories and good scriptural thoughts, learn to study the Bible for yourself. Take time to “chew” on the word of God, not just taking in what others have “chewed” in their study. Study it for yourself without just relying on the work others have done. There is value in us processing the study instead of just receiving someone else’s answers from their study.

Train yourself to be godly by spending intentional time in scripture, getting to know God, getting to know Jesus, and allowing scripture to equip you and train you to be the woman or man of God He longs for you to be.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Spiritual Training Series #2: The Spiritual Practice of Reading Scripture

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*Training yourself to be godly will include reading scripture.

Anne of Green Gables described the type of friend she longed to meet: “A bosom friend. A kindred spirit. I’ve dreamt of meeting her all my life.” We all desire a good friend, a bosom friend who understands us, wants to spend time with us, and shares our interests.

But did you know that you can become a friend of Jesus? Or that Jesus wants to call you his friend?

In John 15:14,15, Jesus says, “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.”

Jesus calls YOU a friend if you do what he commands.

This is not just for the disciples – Jesus is inviting you and me – as his present-day disciples, to become his friends!

Verse 15 declares there is a change of status for Jesus’ disciples – there are no longer slaves (or servants) but friends!

But there needs to be obedience on the part of the friends.

And for the friends to be obedient to those commands – they need to know what those commands are!

Yes, Jesus is Lord, but he invites us into friendship. Jesus invites us into friendship, not as ones who must do everything Jesus said – or God said – but as ones who know the heart of Jesus and want to do the things that honor and show respect to our Lord – and friend!

You are my friends if… If what? If you do what I command.

How do we know what Jesus (or the Father) has commanded? We need to read the Bible.

If you want to be a friend of Jesus you need to spend time in Scripture getting to know Jesus, reading it like a letter from a friend rather than a textbook.

This is about getting to know the heart of God, the heart of Jesus. It’s about getting to know him and love him and desire to please him so that it is not obedience out of obligation, but because of a desire to please the one you love!

If you want to train yourself to be godly, to become a friend of Jesus and be more like him, you will want to include a regimen of Scripture reading (memorization, meditation, study, etc.), which will help you to get to know Jesus better.

First, get your own Bible, and then make a plan for reading the Bible. There are various Bible Reading Plans available, including some that take you through the entire Bible in a year. Just search the internet and you can download or order from a variety of plans, but make sure you have a plan so you can train yourself to be godly!

Read the Bible regularly so you can learn what Jesus has commanded, can do what he has taught, and be his friend, and become more godly in the process.

We are to train ourselves to be godly. It begins with reading the Bible regularly.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Spiritual Training Series #1: Train Yourself to be Godly

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Imagine you just received a baby picture from friends who just had a baby. What if they sent you a picture every year? What if you are like me and don’t clean your fridge very often? As you put up the picture from year five, you notice the picture from the first announcement. And then you realize there has been very little change. The baby is still hardly any bigger and doesn’t seem to have developed much. Unfortunately, there are some children who do not mature the way we expect, who never crawl or walk or communicate. This makes us sad because a baby needs to grow.

As followers of Jesus, we need to grow, too.

1 Timothy 4:7 says “train yourself to be godly”.

Philippians 2:12 says “work out your salvation”.

We are to become more “godly” or Christ-like. We are to continue to grow and develop spiritually to become a better expression of the image of God as we were created to be, according to Genesis 1:27.

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he crated them.

Genesis 1:27

This is not just about our own hard work though. In Colossians 1:29, the Apostle Paul writes: “I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.” Yes we are to train ourselves and work out our salvation and struggle. We have a part to play in our spiritual development, but this is never something we do no our own. Like Paul we can depend on “Christ’s mighty power that works within me”.

We can and should do our part. It may be that we choose to practice some of the Spiritual Disciplines that Christians have practiced throughout history. This includes prayer, scripture reading, fasting, sabbath, generosity, and so on. As we practice these disciplines, we make an effort to do our part as we invite the Holy Spirit to do His work in us to make us a little more like Jesus.

Whatever training we want to instill in our lives, we do need to train ourselves to become godly. For this to be a priority in our lives, we need to intentionally prepare a training schedule or plan. When will you read the Bible, and what will you read? When will you pray, and what will you include in your prayer time? When will you choose to fast, and what kind of fast? How will you practice generosity, and so on?

Think back to the time when you first became a believer in Jesus. We could say you were a baby Christian. What would that picture have looked like if your heavenly Father had taken a picture and hung it on his fridge in heaven? What would a picture he took this year look like? As I look back 51 years, to the time He could have taken my “spiritual baby” picture,  I trust that my picture – the me that God sees – would give evidence of much spiritual growth and maturity. Maybe the picture would not just include me, but other people around me who have come to know Jesus or been impacted for Jesus by me.

I pray that you are intentionally pursuing Jesus and looking for ways to grow toward every fuller spiritual maturity.

Keep on looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Do Something That Scares You

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DO SOMETHING EACH MONTH IN WORSHIP THAT FRIGHTENS YOU
If you want to grow, you should be prepared to risk. As a rule of thumb, do something every month that scares you. If you grow in your faith and tenacity, do something every week that scares you. It might be asking a 7th grader to pray the benediction. It may be singing in the middle of the sermon. It may be asking a visitor about his relationship with Christ after a service is over. If you’re shaking in your boots sometime during your ministry, you might feel uncomfortable, but at least you know you have a pulse.

I came across the above paragraph some time ago and don’t remember where it came from or who wrote it, but I keep it on my sermon preparation checklist as a reminder to be willing to do something new and different from time to time.

It is easy for pastors to do exactly what they have always done in how they preach a sermon or plan and lead a service. Human beings easily fall into a rut, a routine that feels comfortable and familiar. But there is a reason that people love to go to Disneyland. I don’t think it’s the rides and entertainment alone; I think part of it is because it is different and unusual from our daily lives. As much as we might fight change, we still want some variety from time to time.

At the same time, bringing variety to a service takes risk. When we, and our church, are used to doing things a certain way, we know that a change could very well frustrate some people. Some may oppose it just because it is different. Some may even have a biblical reason why you shouldn’t have done what you did.

Yet taking the risk may be worth it. Variety awakens our senses. When we taste something new, our tongue notices whether it is an unpleasant taste we have no intention of repeating or a pleasant taste that we think we would like to try again. New experiences awaken different new feelings that the familiar old ways do not. In some churches, a person could sleep through the service and know exactly what happened, in what order, and maybe even the message that was preached, but introducing something new can wake us up.

Recently, at a church where I serve as a transition pastor, I invited people to come for prayer for healing after a baptism service. I have never done that before, but felt that God wanted me to do so. I appealed to Isaiah 53: 4 – 5 to explain the connection between baptism and healing.

4 Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

    stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

I pointed out how Matthew ties Jesus’ healing of the sick and demon possessed to this passage:

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities

    and bore our diseases.” (Matthew 8:17)

A couple of people came for prayer. After the service, a few people told me that prayer for healing had not been practiced in the church, but they were grateful that I had offered it.

The risk for me was to add prayer for healing to a baptism service – something I had never done before. I didn’t know that it was also going beyond the usual practice of the church. But God honoured my willingness to risk as I felt him lead.

Let’s not be afraid to risk misunderstanding, or even simple awkwardness, by doing something in a new way. May God help us to know when to step out of the usual and risk something new.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe