Spiritual Transformation Requires Deliberate Effort

September 2007

Will the tide turn?

Key No. 2 to Spiritual transformation: Deliberate effort or intention.

Key number one to spiritual transformation: it happens from the inside out (see last article on http://www.baptistdigest.com). Key number two to spiritual transformation or growth: it takes intentional effort.

Proverbs 4:23 compels us to “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” This warning is oozing with expectation.  The heart or the inner life, which becomes exterior in our behavior and actions, requires guarding.  It needs vigilant keeping (NRSV). Will it happen without deliberate or intentional action? Becoming like Christ demands commitment. Commitment is necessary for any worthwhile activity (say to become a pianist, or carpenter). Intention is also necessary for apprenticeship to Jesus. Without intention or commitment, we will remain in the “shallows and in the miseries” of stunted spiritual growth.

The ongoing commitment needed for the transformation of our character demands the deliberate cultivation of an ongoing relationship to God in Christ and to one another. Character (our heart, soul, mind, strength, and relationships) will not develop without intending to develop it. Without intention godliness, holiness, or being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29, Galatians 4:19; 2 Corinthians 3:18) will remain an unrealized dream. This takes intention and it takes effort. Putting effort forth in order to earn something is an attitude that does not belong in Christianity. We live by grace through faith. However, grace is not opposed to effort; but it is dead set against an attitude of earning (isn’t this the attitude of the older brother in the story of the prodigal son?).  Grace and faith are twins that show their true colors in intentional effort and participation in our becoming Christlike without a hint of merit.

“When Jesus saw their faith” as it is said in Mark 2:5 he forgives and heals the paralytic. What did Jesus see that he named faith? They had gone up the roof of Simon Peter’s house, dug it all up, and lowered the paralytic down with the inner assurance that Jesus will heal him. He saw intention that led to action. He knew the entrance to the house was blocked. So when the paralytic showed up in front of him, he knew it was done on purpose. Contrast this with the scribes “sitting there” (2:6). They did not have any intention to believe, follow, and act by faith. They would only think and debate and accuse. Who then experienced spiritual growth in this event?

To intend: “add up, aim, appoint, aspire to, attempt, be determined, be resolved, connote, contemplate, decree, dedicate, denote, design, designate, destine, devote, endeavor, essay, expect, express, figure on, hope to, import, indicate, look forward, mean, meditate, ordain, plan, plot, propose, purpose, reserve, resolve, scheme, set apart, set aside, signify, spell, strive, think, try.” Thesaurus.com. Roget’s New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1). Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/intend (accessed: August 16, 2007). 

Discipleship and spiritual formation demand our participation even though the main work happening is the work of grace by the Holy Spirit in us. To grow spiritually we have to mean it, or do it on purpose. Without our participation in the process, we will not be formed into the likeness of Christ as we should.

Peter urges “Be serious and discipline yourselves for the purpose of prayer” (1 Peter 4:7) and “Discipline yourselves and keep alert” (1 Peter 5:8; see also 1 Corinthians 9:26; 1 Timothy 4:7-8). My point is that both Peter and Paul believe that we ought to be deliberate about our lives in Christ. Without the effort Christians will not journey along the path of spiritual growth; they will be spiritually stunted.

Sometimes I quote the great commission from Matthew and leave out the part of “train them to do everything I have told you” and ask what is missing from my quote. It is not unusual to get no answer. Training in doing all he taught us to do takes more intention than we realized. Being like Christ is a great vision that will remain unrealized if we continue to think it will happen without serious participation on our part.

Those who desire to walk with the Master must do so with intent. Vision minus intent is shallows and miseries. Vision plus intent leads on to spiritual fortune: intimacy with Christ!

Now is the time to take Walking with the Master to the next level in our lives:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
--William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1599)

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