Seeds for 08/31/2023 - Matthew 12:43-45
Scripture: “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
Observation: The image Jesus employs is vivid, describing an “impure spirit” cast out of a person which, after wandering homeless, returns to find its former abode “swept clean and put in order” but “unoccupied.” Recruiting some buddies, it returns to make life worse than before.
The message is clear. Getting rid of the bad is an important but unfinished work. The next step is to fill up with the good. Nature abhors a vacuum and so does our soul. If we’re not being filled with Jesus, we are open for something else to come and fill us. Booting out the bad tenant is the beginning. But that leaves our hearts with a vacancy sign advertising room available. Until we’ve filled that vacancy, we’re vulnerable.
As CS Lewis said, “No half-measures are any good.” Here’s the full context, from Mere Christianity.
Christ says, "Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
Jesus doesn’t simply come to get rid of our ailments, our demons, our sin, and our bad habits so we can improve. He comes to make us new.
A church term for this work of becoming new is “spiritual formation.” We have been formed by our own crooked desires and the world’s backwards values. That formation doesn’t disappear overnight. That wicked river ran over the rocks of our spirit for a long time. The new formation—spiritual formation in Christ—takes time.
Not merely content to be free of the bad, Jesus’ desire is that we submit to the whole work of God, forming us in His likeness through worship, prayer, scripture, service, study, generosity, fasting, fellowship, and more. With no new formation in Christ, we’re open to whatever wind may blow through. With that new formation, we grow solid and strong in Him.
Application:
What practices and rhythms of life help you become more formed in and filled with the Spirit of Jesus?
How is your spiritual life and formation different when you are not living by those practices and rhythms of life?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, may I not stop at forgiveness, pardon, and second chances. Do the whole work of filling me up and forming my spirit in Jesus. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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