Ongoing faithfulness requires ongoing strengthening by God’s grace—and we have a role in this! I continue to believe that this is a serious area of neglect for many of us.
How can we do this? One non-optional way is through regular biblical meditation—personal rumination over biblical passages through which God personally reveals himself and infuses energizing and transforming spiritual life into our souls.
The Hebrew word for meditation (hagah) means literally to “mutter” to oneself. The idea is to linger over a truth—to ponder, muse, ruminate, obsess on, ingest it—so that it gets down into your soul and profoundly changes your deepest beliefs and values and affections.
J.I. Packer describes meditation in his book Knowing God:
“Meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God . . . Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief in to a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.”
Does this practice sound foreign to you? In all likelihood, you already meditate in many harmful ways! Compulsive worry or anger or self-recrimination are forms of meditation. We repeatedly rehearse past offenses, or plot revenge, or imagine fears concerning the future. We keep going over and over these things in our thoughts and imagination, and they destructively affect our emotional state and choices. God calls on us to replace these instinctive, spontaneous meditations with the deliberate, habitual (“day and night”) choice to meditate on his Word—and to reap the rewards of doing this!
It is meditation on God’s Word that refreshes us with God’s presence (Psalms 1:1-2) and makes us “like a (healthy) tree” (Psalms 1:3). It is sitting at Jesus’ feet (like Mary) as he teaches us his Word – the necessary and the good part that will not be taken from us (Luke 10:39,42). It is failure to do this that turns our ministry (like Martha) into something that is full of worry and bother and resentment toward others and toward Jesus himself (Luke 10:40-41). It is the Word of God’s grace that will build us up to lead faithfully (Acts 20:32), and which gives us fresh revelation with which to encourage others (Isaiah 50:4).
Do you have a life in the Word? Do you regularly receive fresh nourishment and revelation from God’s Word? I wonder if you really believe that you cannot lead effectively without this.
Why might this area difficult for you? Here are some possible reasons:
Put your past failures under the blood of Christ—and dive back in! Stay at it for a few weeks, and you will develop an appetite for biblical meditation.
The first faithfulness responsibility I want to emphasize is found in 1 Timothy 4:7-16. Many Christian leaders are familiar with this passage, but I fear that we do not really believe it. Timothy has been sent into a very broken church and charged to mend and renew it. He is a young leader in a culture that does not respect youth, and he is probably not a charismatic leader (since he struggles with timidity). As you read 1 Timothy 4:7-16, note well the striking promise in 4:16: “Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Regardless of how you interpret this specifically, it is clear that Timothy will be effective as a leader as he continues to make progress in his own life!
Notice in 4:15 that the key is your progress being evident to the people you lead. We think that our main job is to see that they are making progress—but our main job is that they see our progress! God works through this to inspire his people vertically to his transforming power.
In what areas are we to make evident progress? Paul speaks in 4:12-14 of three areas:
In his book Jesus Driven Ministry, Ajith Fernando writes:
“Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843), who was mightily used by God to bring revival to Scotland . . . said, ‘My people’s biggest need is my personal holiness.’ Always our biggest battles in ministry are with ourselves. Only our disobedience can thwart God’s desire to bless us and make us fruitful.”
Are you making progress in the way you use your speech to build up (Ephesians 4:29), in conducting yourself in all arenas as a representative of Jesus (Colossians 3:17), in thriving off of giving God’s love away (John 13:17), in taking new scary steps of faith (Hebrews 13:7), and in a healthy life of sexual purity (1 Thessalonians 4:3,4)?
God’s Word (especially the gospel) has the power to save and transform people. Is this emphasis central in your leadership, or are you subtly neglecting it and depending on personal charisma, your administrative abilities, or other areas of gifting?
We are not all gifted in teaching or preaching, but we can all model biblical meditation and testify to its power. We can all urge our people to receive gifted teaching and preaching. And we can all chip away at getting better in how we communicate God’s Word to our people. Are you making progress in these things?
Paul is concerned that Timothy not neglect the use and development of his gift. The many other legitimate responsibilities of leadership can lead to neglecting our areas of spiritual gifting, but this mistake will sap power and confidence from your leadership! By exercising your gift, you powerfully build up your Christian community. And by experiencing God working through you in this way, you gain confidence that are fulfilling your calling—and this confidence will bleed over into other areas of leadership (2 Timothy 1:6,7).
Are you more focused on the regular exercise of your gifts in and beyond your house church? Are you growing in your effectiveness in your gifts? Are you helping your Christian friends do this?
Notice the intensity of the verbs (4:7,8,10,15,16). Faithfulness involves serious, sustained effort to make progress in these areas. This has nothing to do with how you compare to other people in these areas. It has everything to do with embracing and pursuing these priorities before God. If you do this, nothing can stop you from becoming the leader God wants you to be!