Spiritual Breathing

Breathing is essential for life (wow, that's a shocker). If a person doesn't breathe, he or she will most definitely suffocate (notice a trend?). As a matter of fact, breathing is so fundamental (basic) to human life that it is most often overlooked. Since our respiratory functions are involuntary, it seems as though we rarely ever think about how, why, what, and when we breathe. We simply do it.

But when it comes to our spiritual lives, do we have the same luxury? Can we rely upon some sort of involuntary, mechanical system to provide "oxygen" to our souls? Or, is there something that we, as Christians, must do? Recently I heard a wonderful exposition of the book of Jude by John Piper that related to this very issue. The specific verses in consideration were 20 and 21:

(20) But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, (21) keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

So how do we "keep ourselves in the love of God"? By "praying in the Holy Spirit."

It seems like life is at stake in these verses. Don't we want to remain in the love of God? Isn't that essential for our lives? Yes and yes! We want to remain in the love God. We need to remain in the love of God. And by "breathing" properly, we will remain in the love of God. So what is this "breathing" of which I speak? Prayer.

Perhaps there is no subject in all of Christian living that can and will convict even the most devout Christian. Any Christian, who honestly examines himself or herself, will admit that his or her prayer life could be better. I don't think that there ever comes a point in a Christian's life where he or she can truly say, "Yep, I pray enough. Don't need any more of that." It's always something that needs improvement.

So obviously, we know that prayer is not an involuntary function. If it were something that involuntary forces controlled then we wouldn't have to worry about it. But, that doesn't align with reality. Because in reality, we do have to worry about it. We do have to wake up and force ourselves onto our knees. We do have to voluntarily "breathe." And the thing that is so astonishing is that we are told that by our praying, we will keep ourselves in the love of God. This is something that we must do. We must keep ourselves in the love of God by praying.

Often times in Reformed circles we try so hard to protect the sovereignty of God that we negate human responsibility. Sure we say things like, "God uses means of grace to bring about His ends." But at the same time we are often ready to call persons heretics when they are "doers", thinking that they are trying to earn favor with God. But Scripture clearly attests to the facts that God is sovereign over all, and that we must act. We must do. And in particular, we must pray.

This means that a mechanical Christian life, where the person just fills out a card and thinks that he or she is in the Kingdom, is utterly unbiblical. Any person that doesn't understand that the Christian life is a daily battle that must be fought has been fooled and will likely run into some real trouble in his or her walk. Because we can't just sit back and not act. God hasn't set it up that way. The Holy Spirit intentionally used actions words (verbs) all throughout Scripture in reference to the Christian's daily walk.

With that said, let's look at verse 1:

Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.

Note in this verse that Jude mentions that his readers are kept. So in verse 21 he exhorts his readers to act. But in verse 1 he states that they are kept - they are passive. The only way that I can make sense of this is to say that the latter verse is dependent upon the former truth. Jude can exhort his readers to keep themselves in the love of God through prayer because they are being kept by God for (some translations say "by") Jesus. That's our confidence in prayer. That's how we can be assured the we can keep ourselves in the love of God through prayer. Because we are already kept in the loving arms of our heavenly Father. In other words, the means by which God has declared to keep us in His love is through our prayers. And we can pray confidently, knowing that we will remain in His love, because we are sure that we have been, and will continue to be, kept by His powerful hand.

Brothers and sisters, let us be a praying people. Let us draw near to our Father in prayer so that we will grow in grace. Let us spend time with Him and show Him the delight we find in Him. Our lives depend on it. If we don't breathe we will suffocate. Likewise, if we don't pray we will suffocate - spiritually. But God has cleared a path for us that we might walk in it and receive sanctifying life.

In closing, remember this: "It's hard to stumble when we are on our knees."