Detox Your Soul

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We are not just called to a glorious task but to a glorious Person. 

It is tremendously liberating to know that before God calls you to a task, he calls you to a Person; before he calls you to serve, he calls you to be served.

Our greatest duty is to give our minds and eyes the opportunity to gaze, to wonder, to take in the awesome glory of God in the face of Christ. No ministry or church will suffer by prioritising this great call!

~ Tom Clewer, A Glorious Ministry, https://www.unionpublishing.org/resource/a-glorious-ministry/

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I struggle not hating naps. They feel so unproductive. On top of losing the time when I’m asleep, I find it difficult to get up and moving again. The truth is, I easily forget what God does not: “He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14).

More consequential than this, though, I often forget that my goal should be to please God. Even worse, I often don’t remember that what pleases God, whatever I do or do not do, is trust (Hebrews 11:6). Faced with a list of tasks, my feet stray from following Jesus to the mountain to pray (Luke 6:12). I lose sight of God who I should glorify in all I do by remembering His goodness to me. And I lose sight of Jesus in whom God showers His grace in kindness on me.

Why is this? My soul is far too prone to the toxicity of self.

I want to be competent in myself. I want to meet the challenges of family and ministry. I rely on myself – yes, I use what God has given me, but my prayers suffer as I lean evermore on myself to meet the challenge of today.

The sinful lean of my soul into self-hurts me, my family, and my ministry far more deeply than I can see. Too often, whatever we do, word or deed, becomes something we checkoff from a never-ending list, rather than something which we give thanks to God in because of Jesus.

To use modern language, we need to detox our souls from self.

I could give you all sorts of advice and tips at this point. I could tell you about a missionary friend, he and his wife have tried to make it possible for him to have Monday morning to go fishing and talk with God. You’ll find him down by some creek, casting for fish and chatting to God. I could suggest that you figure out how to take a day, get away from your phone and tasks, and just spend time with God in the Bible (without thinking about how you can teach from whatever passages you look at). I could tell you, simply, “Pray more.”

I could tell you all of these things, yet, while perhaps useful, none of them would be the answer. No, the answer is not those things that we can do, as helpful as they may be practically.

We need to lean into Jesus. We need to see how He trusted God, and trust His Father like He did.

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…we get to come to know the Father in a way that the Son, and only the Son, has ever known him. In a way that only the Spirit can show us.

~Tom Clewer, Our Father in Heaven, https://www.unionpublishing.org/resource/our-father-in-heaven/

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We are called not just to a list of tasks to do in order to present and live out the Gospel – though we are. No, we are called, first and foremost, to live in the Gospel, and to relate to the Father and the Son by the Spirit. This doesn’t mean that we start dropping tasks (Jesus didn’t), and we still need those quiet times away from tasks to just be with God (like Jesus). It simply means that we get to live like Jesus. We get to relate to His Father as He does, because in Him God is our Father too.

The way Jesus relates to His Father: live that.

Spend time following Jesus around in the Gospels and in the rest of the Bible. Pray like He does because you have the same Father. Do what He does because you share the same hope (namely, to be together with the Father forever). Let your gaze be filled with Jesus and His relationship with His Father. Let yourself meditate on the truth that His relationship is what He has shared with you through faith. Lean into Christ, and enjoy the life He does.

Detox your soul from self by filling the gaze of your soul with the Person and life of Christ.