One Quality and One Discipline That Will Draw You to Jesus [EP 42]
In this episode, I want you to meet someone who is featured in my new book, SILENCE YOUR INNER PHARISEE: Ditch Performance and Embrace Radical Freedom in Christ. He’ll share his story about something that re-sets his relationship with Christ.
If you’re a regular listener to this podcast, you know that I was living for many years equating the quality of my service for God to the health of my relationship with him. I want you to avoid that. So I challenge you to take the Spiritual Self-Assessment I’ve developed. This will be a great first step to getting an honest picture of how healthy you are spiritually. It’s free. Go get it now and take it. Go to my website.
For many, many months, I’ve been pointing to June 7, and now, as this episode releases, that day is just one week away. T-minus 7 days and finally, my new book will be out. SILENCE YOUR INNER PHARISEE. It will be in paperback and Kindle, distributed through Amazon.
Can I ask for your prayers? I wrote this book for a much bigger purpose than sell books-- but to change lives. The more I talked with believers about this whole issue of a performance-based living, the more I realized that it wasn’t just my problem. So I wrote the book and it’s coming out next Wednesday. The subtitle is this: Ditch Performance and Embrace Radical Freedom in Christ.
Today’s guest is one of my featured stories in the book. His story is brief in the book, but here in this episode, you get to hear his heart and go deeper than what he shares in the book. Before we get to him, I want to share one key principle from my book. If you never get the book, then at least you’ll get some meat here on the podcast.
Five of our grandchildren were with us a few weeks ago. Our house was one big party. The kids were wonderful, well-behaved and responsible. But with our once-orderly home packed with children, life was vastly different than we were used to.
I learned that the discipline of knowing Jesus is one that takes intentionality. With five grandchildren around, I couldn’t just retreat to the patio for time with God. At least one child would follow me. They wanted to be with grandpa.
The biggest lesson I learned that week is that I have to be diligent to know Jesus. It doesn’t just happen. It’s hard work, just like any relationship. And this is the most important relationship of all.
It’s not just in the phase of life with little kids.
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the season of caring for aging parents or an ailing spouse. The constant demands give you little time to retreat with Jesus. It’s even hard to think about your relationship with him.
Every stage of life presents its challenges to knowing Jesus. And within those stages are seasons that present seemingly impossible scenarios.
Tenacity is required when it comes to knowing Christ. The apostle Paul overcame many things that interfered with knowing his Savior. He didn’t raise small children, but he knew what it was like for life itself to edge out his “Jesus time.”
- He sat in prison in chains. Yet, in the hardship of a cold prison cell, with no scrolls of Scripture or writing materials, he grew in his relationship with Jesus. He learned to commune with the Lord.
- He was shipwrecked at least three times. In all the terror and commotion, he grew in serving Christ. Throughout these times of survival, he clung to Jesus. He made time for the relationship. I don’t know how, but he must have. His relationship was so solid he wasn’t sidelined for the future.
- Opposition hounded him. The more he preached, the more he drew the ire of Jewish leaders. In his testimony to King Agrippa, Paul said, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me” (Acts 26:20-21 NIV).
Paul needed the grace of God to stay spiritually healthy. So do you. Your day-to-day survival is dependent upon your relationship Christ. As the battle grows more intense, you need Jesus more. While you depend on Christ, be diligent to practice habits that will help you know him and flourish. Believe me, I would have done things differently 30 years ago if I knew what I know now. And I would have avoided destructive seasons in my life.
Well, let’s get to my guest. You heard him way back on Episode 15. His story was so meaningful, that’s why I asked him to write it up for my book. Tim Epling is a go-getter. He’s been serving the Lord for many years. Tim’s an entrepreneur, pioneer, family man and loves the Lord. He’s a pastor, too, and someone who practices a certain discipline on a regular basis. I asked him to come on the podcast because I need help in this area—and I thought a lot of listeners do, too.
LINKS AND RESOURCES:
Get Silence Your Inner Pharisee (June 7 release)