Let’s be honest ladies, I get it. We wake up every morning and the mental checklist starts ticking: Did I finish that laundry? Don’t forget to pick up yoghurt at the store. Little Teodor really needs new boots, I really need to finish that work report, my husband needs a stain cleaned on his shirt, and was I supposed to help with church fika (coffee time) or Sunday school this weekend?
This ticking never seems to stop, even when we are trying to get in our daily Bible reading or listening to a sermon. So of course, it seems obvious that digging deeper theologically is hardly on our checklist. And we often surrender to that truth and are just thankful that we are able to make time to read the Bible at all.
More than the minimum
How many times have I found myself saying, it’s better to read a few verses than none at all, to a Christian sister? Listen to me ladies, we are answering the wrong question!
In the same way, we might respond to a believing sister asking how short a top or skirt can be without sinning by giving her a ruler, we are measuring holiness incorrectly. Rather than fixing our gaze on how close to a line we can be without sinning or how little time we spend in the Word, while still being able to check “Bible time” off our lists, we must learn to train our gaze upon Christ..
God does not want the minimum from us; he does not desire for us to do “just enough to survive or keep from sinning.” God rather wants us to understand who he truly is through his Word, so that our eyes and hearts lock in on him, his goodness and his worthiness.
God does not want the minimum from us. God rather wants us to understand who he truly is through his Word, so that our eyes and hearts lock in on him, his goodness and his worthiness.
God not only jealously wants us to fix our eyes upon him and deeply understand his Word, but amazingly, he also forms, trains, and grows us into his image through the process (2 Cor. 3:18). God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, as John Piper likes to say, and this satisfaction comes through really knowing him, not just in one or two favorite verses but through the whole counsel of God’s Word. So ladies, let’s be passionate to grow theologically.
An old classic
In the famous classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, “Christian,” is on a journey to the Celestial city. (If you have not heard of Pilgrim’s Progress, you are missing out on almost 350 years of this solid bestselling book.) Christian is, well, a new Christian who is being trained up and helped but also tempted and tried along the way. One of the sneakiest temptations to sin comes in the way of a green grassy resting place, made for pilgrims to regain their strength for the journey.
Christian is tired from the long hike he has made so far, and he is offered the grace to rest at this oasis by the Lord. Women, as a mom to five, I know there are times when we really are just weary, and God graciously invites us into his rest, just like the character Christian. During difficult periods of life—nights up with newborns, days filled with grief, or times of illness and pain—we cling to what we remember, resting in truth we have received in easier days—Scripture, the lyrics and melodies of worship songs, biblical wisdom from sermons and books. Let us learn to rest up well in Christ, when we are able.
Now, Christian is so relaxed at this oasis that instead of standing and continuing the hike, he leans back, admires his new clothes given by the Lord and his valuable scroll, and falls into a deep sleep in the middle of the day. He awakens as night is coming and is disappointed to discover how many hours he has slept. As he walks on, he realizes his scroll is lost, and must walk all the way back to the resting place to find it. He cries over his lost hours, worrying over having to walk in unfamiliar land through the night and that he might not find this dear scroll that is a sort of confirmation ticket to the Celestial city. In short, Christian’s whole life purpose is to walk the road faithfully to come to the Celestial city, and he has made a grave error.
[Christian] now went on bewailing his sinful sleep, saying, O wretched man that I am that I should sleep in the daytime! That I should sleep in the midst of difficulty! That I should so indulge the flesh, as to use that rest for ease to my flesh, which the Lord of the hill hath erected only for the relief of the spirits of pilgrims!
I am made to tread those steps with sorrow, which I might have trod with delight, had it not been for this sinful sleep. How far might I have been on my way by this time! I am made to tread those steps thrice over, which I needed not to have trod but once; yea, now also I am like to be benighted, for the day is almost spent. O, that I had not slept!
Our first reaction might be to wonder, was the fact that the brother took a nap all that bad? Surely his response is a bit exaggerated! However, in the context of this classic book, each hour symbolizes approximately a year of Christian’s life. A half-day long nap was a huge setback!
Let us ask the Lord for a passion to know him more deeply through his Word, that we may be truly satisfied in him as we know him more and more.
Ladies, after we have truly rested in Christ in periods of difficulty and regained our strength, are we satisfied to just lean back, relax in our simple understanding of God and his Word? Are we sleeping away years of our Christian journeys, literally or figuratively? Are we dumbly scrolling through the social media of life instead of pursuing deeper love and knowledge of our Lord? Are we uninspired as Christians, just trying to get along with the minimum?
Pursuing godliness with passion
Oh, that we would be able to see our lives as Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, and already today work hard to avoid the pitfalls of deep sleep and theological laziness. Let us give ourselves over to the pursuit of godliness, allowing many of the good and important things that take our focus and time to pale in comparison to the worthiness of Christ. We do not want to look back on our lives and weep over the lost years where we slumbered and stumbled through our Christian journey, not striving to seek out all the depths of the mysteries of God’s good Word.
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:11–14).
As I like to say to other women, “the dishes and the laundry will always be with us,” so let us carve out and make time in our lives for that which is of eternal value. Let us ask the Lord for a passion to know him more deeply through his Word, that we may be truly satisfied in him as we know him more and more.