UCB Word For Today

The serving pathway. On the serving pathway, you find God’s presence seems most tangible when you’re helping others. You identify with the words of Jesus: ‘Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to Me’ (Matthew 25:40 NKJV). And you may find that you are uncomfortable in a setting where you don’t have a role to play or a service to perform. An example of this would be Dorcas, whom the Bible says ‘was full of good works and charitable deeds’ (Acts 9:36 NKJV). Gladys Aylward could be considered a more recent counterpart to Dorcas. A humble housemaid from London, she didn’t let hardship or rejection by a missionary society silence Christ’s call on her life. In China, she cared for orphaned children, protected the vulnerable, and faced danger to help people in need. Her life was marked by humble service, obedience, and joy in serving God. President Jimmy Carter has probably inspired more people as an ex-president than he did while he was in office because of his passion for servanthood through such channels as Habitat for Humanity. People on this pathway find that if they’re just attending church but have no place to serve, God begins to feel distant. They need to be ‘plugged in’. Two dangers faced if you are in the serving pathway are: 1) You will be tempted to judge others who don’t seem to be serving as much as you do. 2) You can get caught up in being God’s servant and forget that you’re His beloved and redeemed child. Hence you have to stretch by learning to receive love as well as to offer it.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

The relational pathway. People who follow the relational pathway find that they have a deep sense of God’s presence when they are involved in significant relationships. Jesus’ words, ‘For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them’ (Matthew 18:20 NKJV), makes perfect sense to the relational type. If you are on the relational pathway, you may feel guilty when you hear other people speak of long periods of solitude with God and think: ‘Solitude wouldn’t be so bad if I could just bring a bunch of other people along.’ You have often experienced key spiritual moments, such as being convicted of sin or being encouraged to persevere, as God speaks to you through other people. You are much more apt to practise prayer or acts of servanthood when you can do it in a relational context. When you are on the relational pathway, you tend to hear God speak to you more in a conversation than from a book. And you stagnate spiritually to the degree that you feel isolated. But there are two dangers you must guard against. One is superficiality – getting spread so thin relationally that no one gets past your external self to know you and love you and challenge you deeply. The second is becoming so dependent on the thoughts and counsel of others that you don’t develop the sensitivity and ability to hear God for yourself. ‘Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left’ (Isaiah 30:21 NKJV).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

The relational pathway. People who follow the relational pathway find that they have a deep sense of God’s presence when they are involved in significant relationships. Jesus’ words, ‘For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them’ (Matthew 18:20 NKJV), makes perfect sense to the relational type. If you are on the relational pathway, you may feel guilty when you hear other people speak of long periods of solitude with God and think: ‘Solitude wouldn’t be so bad if I could just bring a bunch of other people along.’ You have often experienced key spiritual moments, such as being convicted of sin or being encouraged to persevere, as God speaks to you through other people. You are much more apt to practise prayer or acts of servanthood when you can do it in a relational context. When you are on the relational pathway, you tend to hear God speak to you more in a conversation than from a book. And you stagnate spiritually to the degree that you feel isolated. But there are two dangers you must guard against. One is superficiality – getting spread so thin relationally that no one gets past your external self to know you and love you and challenge you deeply. The second is becoming so dependent on the thoughts and counsel of others that you don’t develop the sensitivity and ability to hear God for yourself. ‘Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left’ (Isaiah 30:21 NKJV).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

A spiritual pathway has to do with the way you most naturally sense God’s presence and experience spiritual growth. We all have at least one pathway that comes most easily to us. And there’s enormous freedom in identifying and embracing your spiritual pathway. It means you can focus on relating to God in that way. For the next few days, let’s look at some different spiritual pathways and see which one’s yours. First let’s examine the intellectual pathway. When you are on this pathway, you draw closer to God as you learn more about Him. You love to study Scripture. When you go to church, you often find yourself marking time during the musical worship until the sermon starts. When you are faced with a crisis or a spiritual challenge, you tend to go into analytic, problem-solving mode. You identify with the words of Jesus when He said, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your…mind’ (Luke 10:27 NKJV). The danger of this pathway lies in becoming all head and no heart. Dallas Willard once observed that it is extremely difficult to be right and not to hurt everybody with it. That’s why Paul wrote: ‘Knowledge puffs up while love builds up’ (1 Corinthians 8:1 NIV). The New Living Translation says: ‘While knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognises’ (1 Corinthians 8:1-3 NLT). So be sure your growth in knowledge is balanced with growth in humility and love.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

God can deliver you from anything in a single day, but you’ve got to back it up with daily discipline. If you don’t practise spiritual discipline day in and day out, your deliverance will be short-lived. You’ll fall back into whatever it was that God delivered you from. Anybody can set a life goal; the hard part is going after it every day. You get into shape one workout at a time. You get out of debt one pay cheque at a time. Whatever goal you are going after, you have to take it one step at a time, one day at a time! Notice that Paul didn’t just say, ‘Walk not after the flesh’; he also said to walk ‘after the Spirit’ (see Romans 8:4). Deciding you are against something is only half the battle. The other half is deciding you are for something. Dallas Willard once said, ‘Not going to London or Atlanta is a poor plan for going to New York.’ That’s obvious, but that’s how many of us approach spiritual formation. We try to not sin by not sinning. But if you’re focused on what you shouldn’t do – you probably won’t do what you should. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18 KJV). Jesus didn’t say you will build your church. It’s not yours; it’s His. And that goes for your business, your school, your family, etc. It’s not yours; it’s His. So, the pressure is off you. And if you’re focused on walking in obedience, He will fight your battles for you!

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.