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Maintaining our Spiritual Life a Bible study By Susan Murray

Banner of Truth Minister's conference. Feb 2002 Session SM 

Many ways in which I think many of you would probably be far more able than I would to speak on this subject of maintaining your spiritual life. You've probably been walking that life and living that life for much longer than I have. And I wanted to say at the outset also, and I'm glad Jean stood up because people can recognise who she is, but I noticed on the programme that the husbands and wives are going back to back when they're speaking.
So tomorrow when Peter Barnes is speaking, Lynn Barnes will be speaking to us. And at this moment, Ian Murray is speaking to the men. So just to make it clear that Ian hasn't a young wife. And yeah, I would much rather that she was doing this tonight. But anyway, I just want to say from the outset that I'm a woman like you who's been saved by the grace of God. And I'm not perfect yet. And I look forward to that day when I will be through the many valuable lessons that I've been learning, even just preparing this and digging up in my own mind thoughts that I could share with you. And I guess, really, when you think about it, our spiritual life is that part of us of God's fitting for heaven. Nevertheless, there are certain Christian basics that are our responsibility to take upon ourselves to do while we work out our own salvation. So just like we take food and water to make us physically strong, there are obviously basic things that we need to do and remember to do and to take in as a Christian woman. I don't know if many of you have ever seen or had encountered maybe young men and women who have suffered illnesses because they haven't been taking the proper amount of food or water. That's a terrible thing to see their lives wasting away. I've seen it probably close at hand on two occasions and it's a dreadful, dreadful thing to have an eating disorder. And I think it's as dreadful for us not to be feeding ourselves spiritually, not to be maintaining our spiritual lives. I know many of you are ministers' wives and you would think for us that isn't something that needs to be repeated. But Christ had to repeat these things to the apostles, to the disciples who were with men and women, who listened to the many sermons that he preached and what he taught. So I want to share with you four of what I see are the ABCs and to share some of the consequences when we aren't maintaining our spiritual lives and the blessings when we do. And these are the things that I've learned through scripture, through historical examples that I've read of men and women of the past and just in my own experience as God's child. I'm sure you've guessed probably what they are and Mrs. Blanche so ably shared this first one and that is speaking to God in prayer. Secondly, reading God's word. Thirdly, entering into fellowship with other believers. And fourthly, something I thought is really vital and that is having a desire to keep growing. Having a desire to keep growing. So we need to make it clear to ourselves first of all that God won't do for us what he expects us to do for ourselves. Even though he does minister to us and help us in the way of pursuing these things by his Holy Spirit, we have to do them ourselves. I can't enter into that prayerful relationship with the Father God the way that you need to do for yourself.
I can't, I can read the scriptures for you, I can pray for you but you need to do it for
yourself. And I find a stimulus to maintaining my own spiritual life comes from reminders
as to why it's important that I do it. Why do I need to do this? And as I said even if
the disciples and the apostles needed reminding, I think we too. Senior in years or younger
in years we all need it. And if you would like to turn with me to Matthew's Gospel chapter
6. And I am going to be looking at different passages and I thought I'd keep it in the
theme of a talk come by the study so we'll look at different passages of scripture. And
we'll just read this little section from verse 6 to verse 13.
Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things that you have need of before
you ask Him. In this manner therefore pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation
but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever. Amen. It's interesting isn't it that Jesus tells us not if you pray but when you
pray. And really we need to ask ourselves if we're in Christian ministry or work, Christian
women, do I have any need to confess my sin? Do I want to see God's well being done? Do
I need food? My husband made employment and finance in order to keep myself and my family.
And not only me but other people in these regards. Do we have or do we need God's protection
and strength to overcome sin and Satan? A verse in Proverbs 14 verse 1 struck me not
that long ago in this regard to praying for God's protection from sin and Satan. It says
every wise woman builds up her house but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. And
I just think sometimes we set out to maybe do this but when we're living far from the
well of God's word and prayer we can. I believe the wife and the mother's influence in the
home is great and we can affect the atmosphere of our homes. I've been reading some articles
lately and just been staggered to think about our influence in our homes. If we're not praying
for that protection from sin and Satan we can fall into the pit of selfishness and I
know Mrs. Blanche has touched on some of these things so it must be that God wants us to
hear these things. We can start thinking of everything and how it affects us and we get
into that me syndrome and when we are miserable our husbands and our children are miserable
and we can become angry and bitter and discontented and our walk not only then affects us and
our relationship with God because where there's sin present that hinders our relationship
but we need to be careful that it also affects other people and especially those who are
nearest and dearest to us because they're the ones who see what we really are and what
our lives are really all about and we need to pray to the Lord to enable us not to fall
into these and other temptations. John Bunyan once said that he asked why he faced temptation
as often and suffered it as hard and he found the answer to be that he didn't pray for deliverance
and protection daily from Satan and sin. Now John Bunyan confesses to that, you and I surely
can confess that there are times when we have slipped and fell right into the temptation
that's been before us and we've dishonoured the Lord and we've been guilty before him.
And back to Matthew 6, do we need to pray for others? Do we need to praise God and acknowledge
all his greatness? Well I hope you would all say yes to all of the above. We do need to
pray for all of these things and many more and if Jesus Christ our Saviour, our great
rescuer from sin says that we need to pray then we must pray. It's something that we
must do. I think it's a helpful thing to look at the lives of individuals even in the scriptures.
You could think of someone like Daniel there in Daniel 6, 10 and 11 and how these wicked
men scheme to trip Daniel up and the only thing they can find fault with them all is
that he prays regularly. He prays regularly. And it seems to me that he maintained a habit,
he had a forced habit in his life of praying three times a day. It wasn't something he
was born with I don't think because he's a sinful man like you and I are but it was something
that he'd learned just like the Apostle Paul said, I learned how to be content. These men
and women were made of the same stuff as you and I. They were men and women saved by
the grace of God but they made themselves and gave themselves great habits and Daniel
certainly had this habit of prayer. But we're even given encouragement by Jesus in prayer
there in Luke 18 verse 1. It says, then he spoke a parable to them that men ought always
to pray and not to lose heart. And we can lose heart. I think there's a number of experiences
and circumstances in life that can cause that. Sometimes grief, sometimes ill health or anxiety
and fears, sometimes feeling that we're getting nowhere with our prayers but Jesus Christ
encourages us through the scriptures and many more to keep on praying, keep on coming, keep
being that persistent widow that will not let go until the Lord blesses, until the Lord
answers prayer. And I love that verse there and it says, I've just forgotten the reference
at the time when it says, likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses for when we
do not know what we should pray for as we ought, the Spirit himself meets intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
I'll count them in a moment. I've written down somewhere else. At any rate, I remembered
when I was in Africa for a very short time, just three months in West Africa, I did a
short stint there with some missionaries and one of the most frustrating things was while
it was an Ivory Coast French speaking Africa, I could speak French but not their tribal
tongue and many of them couldn't even speak the French so we often had to go through one
or two more interpreters and the frustration at times of me not being able to communicate
exactly what I wanted to say was healed if you like and helped by these wonderful people
who knew exactly what I wanted to say with the right tone and everything else to the
women and some of the young girls that I was trying to speak with. And it reminds me of
this very verse that there are times that the Holy Spirit indeed interprets our groans
and our sighs and our cries for mercy and health because there are many times I know
that I've experienced that when that's all that I can do, when I don't know quite how
to put into words what it is that I need to pray for but I've cried to God to have mercy
and to help and to intervene. So what a privilege Jesus Christ through him being in our lives
and being our Saviour has given us. There are mere creatures that our prayers can reach
the very throne room of heaven. That amazes me. Can reach the very throne room of heaven
and that there our great Father God hears our prayers and answers them according to
his great will. That's one area, this area of prayer. Secondly, it's in reading God's
word that we also maintain our spiritual life. Mary, Lazarus and Martha's sister, we know
that story so well. I think many ministers' wives might put themselves in the category
of being Martha's at times. I think we all could. We've all been busying ourselves and
active in service for God and it's getting that balance time and again. I know I've lost
my balance when I haven't maintained the balance between a life of service and that of maintaining
my spiritual life and because it demands and what Mrs. Blanche was saying about us feeling
what other people want us to do and maybe sometimes expecting far too much of ourselves.
But Mary chooses the better part, Jesus says. It's not that she's a lazy woman. It's not
that she's not a hospitable woman. But she sees that making the time to sit at Jesus'
feet and to listen to his words are not wasted time and that she will get the other things
she needs to get done. And David talks about it in the Psalms, doesn't he? He talks about
meditating upon God's law day and night. And that term meditation is something that we
don't think a lot about today. I believe the New Age movement and some of the other religions
have really hijacked that term of meditation. There is healthy meditation for us as believers
to meditate, to think deeply, not to empty our minds but to fill our minds with God's
word. And David gives us some insight to how deeply in Psalm 119 in particular that he
thought about God's word. In verse 50 there he speaks about how it brought to him new
life, how it brought salvation to him. And that's where it has to begin. We can't maintain
a spiritual life if we don't have life if we're spiritually dead. And in verse 11 he
says how God's word kept him from falling into sin again a reflection of what Jesus
says that we need to pray for. In verse 105 he talks about God's word being a lamp unto
his feet and a light to his pathway. That God's word gives guidance. Now if men like
David needed to pray and needed to look into God's word for guidance, how much more do
you and I need to? That's where we get our principles for living, isn't it? That's where
we find out what God's pleasing and acceptable will is for us as mothers and wives and friends
and neighbours, servants of the Lord. That verse in Proverbs 31 verse 26 is a challenge
when it speaks of the virtuous woman, the woman of worth, and it says she opens her
mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. I was listening to a tape
that I'd remembered I had not that long ago and it was a tape spoken at an old Man of
Truth conference to the men about ministers' wives and I think it was Jeff Thomas speaking.
And the thing that he notes about these women whose husbands were martyred or who they themselves
were martyred was quite startling in terms of the fact that God's word in maintaining
their spiritual lives was their lifeline. They hung everything upon that and he makes
these points and I think they're very helpful. He says that God's word gave these women and
men an eternal focus so that they could get everything else in their lives into perspective.
That's a reason why we need God's word as being part of maintaining our spiritual lives.
And God's word, secondly, made them content with God's wise and sovereign providences
in their lives and I know that it has been mentioned before about that, that we can become
very discontented with lots of things in life but it comes back time and again to us realizing
that God's placed us where we are with what we have at the time in history that we're
living in and that in itself should make us content women to know that all our days, our
24 hours are fashioned for us, it tells us in Psalm 139. Another point he made was that
God's word helped these women to encourage godliness and growth in their husbands and
in their children. So the minister's wife must and should encourage him to grow by identifying
with his wife, identifying with his work. Whitfield's wife, on one occasion when he
was preaching apparently in this massive crowd there were some men who were hacklers and
they were shouting and making a fuss and disturbing at the back of the crowd and slowly but surely
while he was preaching they were making their way to the front and it says that his voice
began to crack and his wife was sitting on the side of the platform and as she heard
his voice cracking and noted some nervousness about him she called for him loud enough to
hear, George, play the man of God for Jesus, be a man of God for Jesus and I think that's
a wonderful thing and it's a wonderful ministry that we're involved in and encouraging our
husbands and spurring them on and helping them and standing alongside them even in the
difficulties. Then through God's word God teaches us also, fourthly under this tape
that I listened to, how we are to cultivate and keep our affection towards our husbands.
I thought this was a good point by the Reverend Thomas, he was making the point that our husbands
and we do too but they in particular can face an awful lot of opposition in the ministry
and it can make them better, it can make us better but we've got to cultivate love one
for the other and particularly for our Lord and that in itself will be the remedy against
all bitterness and then just under my own heading under God's word, God's word comforts
us and in turn we know we can comfort other people. We think of verses like Psalm 34 verse
7 where it talks about the angel of the Lord encamping around those who fear him and in
Psalm 34 verses 17 and 18 about how he is near to the broken hearted and our Lord Jesus
Christ himself says in John 14, let not your heart be troubled. Precious promises of God
that are there to comfort us and to build us up and to strengthen and under guard us
and whilst others can bring comfort and counsel and we give thanks to God for that, nothing
I believe can comfort us like the word of God when we read it at the right moment at
the right time or when it's spoken to us at the right moment. I don't know if any of you
have read the little book Mary Bunyan, I think it might be done by Sprinkle Publications,
I'm not sure. It's written in an unusual sort of a style, it's almost like a storybook style
but I've looked in other books to check that the facts are there actually true and when
John Bunyan is taken to prison and his second wife Elizabeth is left with his blind daughter
Mary, I think there's one or two other children to that first marriage and then there's a
couple of their own and she at that stage has a baby. It's devastating for the woman,
I mean they had no welfare system or anything that would give them any support that would
make life more comfortable and she wouldn't have known where her next meal was going to
come from or how she was going to support herself but the people of God in the little
fellowship there rallied to her and her children and one woman in particular stands out and
all she's known as and I don't know of any of you who have read anything know anything
else about this woman but she's known as Goodie Carol and she comes to Elizabeth and she says
things like to her, look to Jesus Elizabeth, he's brought to this far, he won't leave you
and he lifts, she lifts that woman's spirit by quoting the scriptures to her and reminding
of her of who she is in Jesus Christ, that she's a child of God who owns everything,
who's in control of all things, the wonderful word of God. We need it to maintain our spiritual
lives. There will be another important point about maintaining our spiritual lives is entering
or enjoying fellowship with God's people. Now I could quote you that well-known verse
in Hebrews that talks about us not forsaking meeting together but you're ministers wise,
I'd hardly need to remind you of that would I? But I can tell you speaking to other ministers
wise who've been very good friends of mine over the years because I find myself in that
position that there are times when it's been difficult to go to the house of God and to
enter into fellowship particularly times if there's strife in that fellowship that you're
aware of and you almost want to stay away from it and not face it and not face the people
that are there and we need to remind ourselves even in those times that we are God's children
and we are called to worship Him and so we must and He needs to speak to us, ministers,
wife, Christian, worker or whatever as much as anybody else and let's face it, it's amongst
God's people that will grow. It wouldn't be the first time I'm sure you or I have been
challenged as iron sharpens iron or rivet and God holds us more responsible too I believe
when we're in the ministry not to leave hypocritical lies. I cannot teach my women in my little
bible study about iron girls, I'm like a bear at home. So God's people challenge us even
looking at you women that are here who've been on the Christian pathway much longer
than I. That encourages me that you're keeping going and that's how we encourage each other.
There's other times, yes God's people encourage us in confidence. That verse talks about spurring
one another on to love and good works. Think of all of those one another passages that
are in the scriptures, all those one another commands and we can only do these and minister
these and exercise these and have others minister them to us if we're in the context of a fellowship
of people. So the fellowship of God's people is important. We need to remember that Christ
died for the church, all the people of God could make up his true church, that we're
not on our own and that he's given us one to the other. Fourthly I think another important
thing in maintaining our spiritual lives is this desire to grow. I've met two women, one
in the church in England and one in the church that we were in London who had problems with
children who weren't growing and it was heartbreaking for them. They could see the others and one
of them my own child taking over their child really quickly and it became apparent there
was something wrong. They're fearful of what the future holds for this child and all the
stigmatism that may be attached to the fact that they may grow up a dwarf in life. So
in particular these mothers went to the right consultants and specialists and found the
help that they needed and thankfully with the proper help both of these children had
grown. Now isn't it amazing that we ourselves can become so content about where we're at
spiritually? I wonder when the last time was that you or I gave ourselves a spiritual check-up.
I wonder how our spiritual phenomena would read. It's important I believe to want to
grow and to never stop wanting to grow more like Jesus Christ and more in our knowledge
of him. At the end of the day do I truly desire to love my Lord more? Because in doing so
we'll obey his commands. We will be praying people. We will be women who read the word
of God. We will be entering into fellowship. So let us be encouraged to maintain our spiritual
lives not because others expect it of us because it pleases him. It pleases our safety and when
we walk close with him he blesses us and he makes us useful women and he makes us a
testimony of his grace to those in our homes outside of our homes and wherever God places
us and at the end of the day all the praise will go to him. Because people will ask you
and I at different times in our lives or look at our lives at different times and say
how are you like that? People say to me, Susan was your family always in the ministry like
you brought up into it? They say that particularly to Matthew. People here from no church background
will often think somehow you've been brought up into it. So it's been passed on to her
from father to son and it's not like that at all because Matthew and I are both from
Christian families, myself a dysfunctional family. So I can tell people, I can tell my
children that I am what I am by God's grace and because he is speaking with me and because
by that grace I am seeking to work out my salvation and I encourage you to do the same.
Let's just cry together. Father God we thank you for the great fact that you are the great
God of all the earth, that you are the creator of this great universe, that you sustain all
things and by your word they come into being. We thank you that our very breathless day
has been given by you and we bless and praise your name for all the provisions that you
have given us and we stand here today because of you and we thank you most of all because
of your grace that you've worked within us and that you've breathed that spiritual life
into us and that you have given us a future, a hope, purpose in life, forgiveness of sin
and so many more things and Father were the day long enough we wouldn't find time enough
to praise you. Father help us because we are sinful women and we fall and fail. We pray
that we might know your keeping hand upon us to be the women of God that you desire
to be. We ask these things for Christ's sake.
My last Jean, I said to Jean that I would only do this talk if she was prepared that
when there was a question time that she also would come to the front because I feel that
there are many people here who would value what she has to say and what she has found
to be her experience in years of ministry and into her spiritual life. So I think we
were going to have a question time but I don't mind staying here also.
Anyone got a question?
While you're thinking of your questions, this book was sent in for the banner office
as a review and it's brought home and I took it. It is yet to be reviewed but it's called
Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. It's by Donald Whitney and published
by Ned Freds and I read quite a lot, well nearly all of it, some of it, excuse me a
little bit question mark but basically it's the most helpful book because he's run through
this chapter of heaven. Susan's covered quite a lot of the ground that he's covered. His
first chapter is, first question. Do you thirst for God? Are you governed increasingly by
God's word? Are you more nothing? Are you sure you didn't read this book? Are you more
sensitive to God's presence? Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal
needs of others? Do you delight in the bride of Christ? Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly
important to you? Do you still grieve over sin? Are you a quicker forgiver? Do you yearn
for heaven and to be with Jesus? So it's a very helpful book that poses these questions
and then we have the scripture and stuff so I would recommend that with your thoughts
too. Right, I think that's the thought.
It's interesting how the same subject Susan has covered basically the same ground as I
was going to cover but from a different angle which I think is quite interesting how the
Lord works in our minds differently and she has spoken about keeping close to Christ and
that's the key to everything isn't it? If we grieve the Holy Spirit by sin in any time
we lose our fellowship with Christ and we can become sickly and ineffective and really
useless. It is so important that we keep close to Christ. In Bunyan's progress, remember
there's a picture of a man watching this fire and there's water being poured upon it
but the comet keeps burning and then he looks behind the screen and hears the oil being
poured on which is the work of the Holy Spirit. And another thing that I had thought of and
Susan touched on this but the emphasis of scripture on he who endures to the end, he
who overcometh. Well there is a battle, there's an endurance, there's not going to be a smooth
path to glory. We've got a throne against us and we've got to press on and endure and
as Susan said, it's not like we, well, you know, read the scripture, let's all read it
later, we've got to do it. And I remember Dr Ryan Jones saying that if we are prompted
to pray or prompted to read, because the Holy Spirit is at work and we must obey that prompting
if we disregard it. And Susan who spoke about taking time for reading and I think taking
time for reading other books too, especially when we're young mothers, our days are very
busy, we have little spare time and even if we only take five minutes in a day to read
something and I find this version, a Czech book, is a very helpful book, they're just
all reading and quite often I think, well how did we know what I need in today because
they're just so relevant. And then reading stimulates prayer and as Susan said that stimulates
love to Christ and love to other people and our burden for the world. And I'm sure a lot
of us, especially as we get older, we don't sleep as well as at night and we have these
sleepless hours. A friend of mine in Edinburgh, she said, oh well I'll use those times to
pray for people. Well I thought, yes, that's good, use those times to pray. But then I
found that, well, you can take everyone's burden and instead of sleep and repose, your
mind became more and more active. And so I read and I've had such a rich time in the
middle of the night, no one else did. You've got to do this or that or the other and then
you read the chapter in the book and you relax and you have that blessing. So that's my thing.
I just thought about it too. I can remember whenever my children were quite small and
I actually find it difficult to concentrate even on the Bible. It's almost as if my brain
had been steeped in nappy sound for too long and I just couldn't seem to concentrate at
all and it frustrated me no end. I in the end would read smaller passages and leave
my Bible open somewhere that I would say, what did you read Susan? And I'd forget it
and I'd go back again and look at it again. It's still having the desire though there
realising it may not be for one person huge chunks of the Bible. The fact is if you're
reading it like David was with a meditation and really trying to understand and keep it
in your mind. I too would use like a daily note Bible reading type thing and also I'm
presently reading through books of the Bible so I try to do the book things and maybe one
in the morning and then do another method to it. The important thing is that we do it.
I think listening to the text of the Bible as you're going in the car is very helpful
particularly if you're on your own. I just think you can go over and over God's word
going through the traffic and provided your attention is still on the traffic. You've
got an input which is very strategic because you know you're going to think of something
and I think if you've been thinking of Bible truths while you're driving I think it can
be very helpful and extra wide input.
One of your days actually reminds me, I don't know how much it's used here but I know in
the States they've got children's Bible reading songs except and people are using those and
they have their time with their own Bible reading with the children before they go to
bed but when they're actually in bed they listen to these tapes before they get to sleep
and that's quite a good thing because some people think they might listen to it so I
think it's something they could encourage in the family.
I think too just when you think also there are times when you can be quite ill and finding
it difficult to read and pray yourself and to ask others to read to you is a wonderful
thing and to pray with you and for you but that's also a way then that even though you
may be low physically or even emotionally and actually that you're still being nice
to children.
I've been greatly blessed listening to children's progress on tape led by John Dealwood and
then there's another series with a rather noisy music background and I can't remember
the author again of John Bunyan's children's progress and it's been such a blessing to
me to hear it over and over again just because I love to hear that in more detail and over
again repetition as it goes over is very important to forget things but that and I
think listening to hymns, great hymns, it's such an encouragement, the lovely music and
familiar words, all these things really help to lift your spirits when you're tired or
depressed or too tired to or it's not possible to be looking at the book if you can use your
mind.
He's talking about hymns, I often find that it's made of hymns and it's helpful and some
of the better ones are really an enlargement of the truth.
I don't know how many people say that in terms of John Piper's book, it's desiring God and
part of the history of that time.
You're staying blind.
Nothing personal.
I think it's good to do more biographies of the saints and bring them into the literary
if you can really capture the lasting of life.
Hopefully you won't get a sleep breathing it but it's a good way to finish the day with
something marvellous.
Yeah and there's something that's very challenging, we could have had challenges with that.
That's right.
I think Jim Cromatie's books are very helpful to the family, they're very brief and yet
they're really interesting stories and scriptural and I think also they cook biographical books
as well.
Can you hear that?
It seems they were not remembering.
It reminds me of that story of just a young person who was talking about a little kid
who went through all the different issues that he was going through and then had changed
and stayed there.
Okay.
Okay.