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Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Don’t forget to pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities…

Colossians 3:16-17; 4:2-3Colossians 3:16-17; 4:2-3
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
16 . Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives, while you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. ¹⁷ Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of him. ² Never give up praying. And when you pray, keep alert and be thankful. ³ Be sure to pray that God will make a way for us to spread his message and explain the mystery about Christ, even though I am in jail for doing this.

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If you’re reading this, the great likelihood is that it is because you are someone who has an online social network. You can interact with friends and acquaintances online. You are daily blasted with status updates, or requests for some sort of interaction.You are fed links to blogs you can read so that you can know the latest thoughts of whoever. With such ready access to “community”, you’d think that we had finally done away with loneliness.

Sadly, no. We just painted a pretty face on it.

Most of this online interaction is trivial. It is surface. Not that you should share your most intimate questions and heart-felt joy and pain with the masses! But it is easy to spend all our time online, not ever really communicating from our heart, and get to the end of the day thinking we can check off the box for contact, for community. The truth is that with all the technology and instant updates and feeds, we are still desperate for meaningful interaction and connections.

A commitment to spiritual disciplines is no guarantee that you will build community and interaction into your life. You can fill your schedule with “spiritual” things and still manage to avoid speaking with God and living in fellowship with God’s people.  But spiritual disciplines are a medium through which we can share our heart with God and with each other, and this makes them priceless. There is no reason for loneliness with our God. Jesus himself often demonstrated them in action.

Prayer is a wonderful discipline in this regard. Or more to the point, prayer is a wonderful habit for bringing us into deeper communion with God. We are repeatedly commanded to pray. Pray for workers. Pray for those who speak to have the right words. Pray for boldness. Pray that love will overflow. Prayer is the natural avenue for sharing what’s in our hearts with God. Not just the pretty and good stuff, but the real mix of life. We have been given access to the throne of Jesus for exactly this purpose.

But there are other habits that also help us share our hearts and minds with God, and sometimes even with each other. Worship is another spiritual discipline that helps us communicate what resides within. All too often we force ourselves to put on a face when God would have us come to him in honesty. We lie to one another to not inconvenience each other. This hurts everyone. And that should make clear that worship is also something that helps us to communicate with one another. It is an avenue for sharing our lives with one another. Giving is also a powerful communicator from our heart. That is, when it is more than just a concession. A heart that willingly sees themselves as stewards will find giving a discipline that speaks volumes in thanks and joy. And by sharing with each other, we build a community that demonstrates and shouts “love”.

Spiritual disciplines are not something commanded for their own sake. Usually, we are hard pressed to even find them “commanded” in Scripture. Certainly not in the scheduled way we usually think of them. Spiritual “habits” don’t make God love or accept us more. They don’t win his approval on our lives and intentions. These habits are instead the way we respond wholeheartedly to the love God has shown. We build opportunities into the fabric of life for us to share with him. And we build into our lives bridges we may use to share with each other.

Today, I offer the following for your prayerful consideration:

So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. And you won’t spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.

1 Peter 4:1-21 Peter 4:1-2
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Being Faithful to God ^{4 1} Christ suffered here on earth. Now you must be ready to suffer as he did, because suffering shows that you have stopped sinning. ² It means you have turned from your own desires and want to obey God for the rest of your life.

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Today I want us all to join in a time of prayer. But specific prayer.

Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this joyfully and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.

Hebrews 13:17Hebrews 13:17
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
17 Obey your leaders and do what they say. They are watching over you, and they must answer to God. So don't make them sad as they do their work. Make them happy. Otherwise, they won't be able to help you at all.

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Our spiritual leaders have a tough job. And we need to consider what we expect of them, and how our actions affect them. Are we, through gossip, creating a situation that will be a terrible poison in the future? Are we being selfish and causing difficulty for the body accomplishing the work God has called it to? Or are we an encouragement? Are we through our words and faith supporting the body as all use their gifts for the kingdom?

I said I want us to pray. And the prayer is simple. Pray for your spiritual leaders. A pastor, deacon, elder, small group leader, a ministry leader – whoever you hear God directing you to pray for. Pray for them, that they will find joy in the service of Christ. Pray for obedience  in your own heart; it is not a highly praised virtue these days. Pray that God would find receptive hearts in his body. Pray that the body would be drawn to deeper unity as a signpost pointing to the Father of Peace. Take a knee today for those who bear accountability to the head of the Church, Jesus.

I don’t usually share all that much personal information with our devotional writing, but this will be an exception. Many of you are already aware that my wife has been undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Today was her* last trip to the hospital to receive chemotherapy. We’ve already received the good new that she is in remission. But we still went today. And in a way, there was definitely an air of rejoicing, of thanks that the journey was over.

In reality, the journey is not over. Going in for the last treatment meant subjecting my wife to the pain of chemotherapy, just as she was beginning to regain some vitality, some rest, some respite from physical pain. It’s one thing to do this in the middle of treatment when you still aren’t sure what the outcome will be. You know that the pain is worth every last bit. But as you lay there with the knowledge that the cancer has been knocked out and defeated, following the plan of the doctors with all their wisdom and experience seems unnecessary; maybe even too much to bear. Why do I have to keep doing this? I won’t go into any detail of what her particular cocktail of chemotherapy drugs can do, but rest assured that it is a full body treatment. Not an inch gets by without feeling the effects.

But all that said, the joy is real. There is a bell in the chemotherapy treatment that each patient gets to ring as they leave that final treatment. It is a reminder, something to look forward to as you undergo treatment, and something to consider some day years from now. And there is joy in it! Yes, it is just a piece of metal twisted, bent together. It has no inherent significance. It is just a bell. But it takes on a life that is more. And my wife got to ring it, as I listened to her over the phone.

So let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace he bore. For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in heaven, which is yet to come.

Hebrews 13:13-14Hebrews 13:13-14
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
13 That's why we should go outside the camp to Jesus and share in his disgrace. ¹⁴ On this earth we don't have a city that lasts forever, but we are waiting for such a city.

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The next two weeks for my wife are going to be filled with sickness, pain and weariness, much as the rest of her treatment. But what a relief to know that this experience isn’t the end. There is life after this! The pain and suffering is not forever. And our lives  in Christ are much the same way.

We can live defeated. We can wallow in misery at all that comes our way. Every setback, every failure, every grievance can fester into something worse. We can be bitter that Christ does not usher us before the throne with joy. We can demand a hearing before God in self-righteous anguish, and miss what he is doing through it all. Or we can see ourselves crucified with Christ. We can find those things that God has placed around us that give us hope and joy. That lighten the load. Those markers that point us to our ultimate home and an end to suffering. Full joy!

So with that I only want to ask, what is it in your life that feels like such a burden that you simply want to give up under its weight? Take a moment to consider how has God surrounded you with his love, or opportunities to trust him in the midst of this thing. What is it that gives you strength to endure? I pray that the Spirit will be at work among us, opening eyes, encouraging hearts, overwhelming us with love and grace.

* I said “our” in my mind as I was writing this, and it truly is a family affair, but it felt shameful to include myself in what she has gone through, as if I felt all the pain she felt. Anyway, these are the thoughts one has as one goes through such things…

Today, my prayer for you is that you are receptive to God’s voice. He desires to equip you and produce in you every thing that would make him smile. He is longing to find a receptive heart.

And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, all that is pleasing to him. Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with his blood. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:20-21Hebrews 13:20-21
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Final Prayers and Greetings ²⁰ God gives peace, and he raised our Lord Jesus Christ from death. Now Jesus is like a Great Shepherd whose blood was used to make God's eternal agreement with his flock. k whose blood was used to make God's eternal agreement with his flock: See . ²¹ I pray that God will make you ready to obey him and that you will always be eager to do right. May Jesus help you do what pleases God. To Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever! Amen.

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It’s mind-boggling to think about the way Hebrews shares this truth. The fact that God would be willing to equip us for his will and produce what is in fact pleasing to him rests in the same authority that raised Jesus from the grave. Every time you remember that Jesus died and then rose again, you can remind yourself that God has the power and will to complete the work he started in you!

If you wonder how to be receptive to God’s voice, then look to Jesus, who lived to do the will of his Father. And as Hebrews 13 suggests, look to those leaders who you have seen follow the example of Christ, teaching you the word of God. God has placed them in your life so that you might know what faithfulness looks like.