For decades, I’ve been told how to live the spiritual life. Unfortunately, most of the advice I’ve received is about the physical realm, not the spiritual realm at all. Teachings, books, conversations, and – sadly – my own self-talk for years center(ed) around doing more of this or that in order to attain spirituality. But spirituality has little to do with “doing.” Instead, it’s about “being.”
Imagine a man. He reads ten chapters of the Bible a day. He prays for an hour each morning, using his prayer journal. He attends a solid church, is involved in ministry several nights a week, and shares his faith in his workplace. Many would say that I just described a very spiritual, true Christian man. And yet, I’ve said nothing about the type of man this is. I’ve only talked about what he does.
The true Christian is one whose life produces the fruit of the Spirit, as defined in scripture. It is a life that displays the qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God Himself builds these traits into a person’s character, using every situation and circumstance that occurs in his or her life.
As the apostle Paul wrote, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” God does the doing, to make me into a being… the kind of spiritual being He wants me to be.
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