HOW DISCIPLINES HELP - As the will is surrendered, we come to grips with our fallen character, which positions every element of our being against God. We must move out of this entanglement to single-minded focus upon doing the will of God in everything, distracted by nothing. Stepping free of entanglements helps us overcome duplicity.
The person who intends to will what God wills begins with what God has said he wills. For example, we know it is not God’s will to have guile (sneakiness) and malice. Then let us decide today never to mislead people and never to do or say things merely to cause pain or harm.
That may sound like a small part of identifying with God’s will, but lying and malice are foundational sins. They make many other sins possible, including family fights and international warfare. How do we cause the duplicity and malice that are buried in our will and character to surface and be dealt with?
A great help is spiritual disciplines, for example solitude (being alone with God for long periods of time), fasting (learning freedom from food and how God directly nourishes us), worship (adoration of God), and service (doing good for others with no thought of ourselves). Disciplines make room for the Word and the Spirit to work in us.
They permit destructive feelings (veiled by standard excuses and accepted practices) to be perceived and dealt with as our will rather than God’s will. Those feelings are normally clothed in layers of self-deception and rationalization. They enslave the will, which coerces the mind to conceal or rationalize what is really going on.
Your mind will really “talk to you” when you deny fulfillment of your desires (for example, solitude denies others’ company; fasting denies eating). As we practice solitude or service, we may find that our “righteous judgments” of others are really ways of putting them down and lifting us up. Our extreme busyness may be revealed as inability to trust God or unwillingness to give others a chance to contribute. Our readiness to give our opinions may turn out to be contempt for the thoughts and words of others or simply a willingness to shut them up.
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