The Power of Hurry to Deaden our Souls

Scripture reading: John 8:31-32

John 8:31–32 ESV

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

All human beings have a physical aspect and a spiritual aspect. We are physical beings living in physical bodies, and that means that we have things to do and places to be. And just as we cannot separate our souls from our bodies, there’s a spiritual aspect to the things we do and the places we go. In this passage, Jesus here talks about three ideas: abiding in the Word, knowing the truth, and being set free. I’d like for us to take a quick look at each of these ideas in the short time.

Abide in His Word

What does it mean to abide? The word ‘abide’ here is ‘meno’, which means to abide, to dwell, to remain. And when it’s used as a noun, ‘mone,’ then you have the word ‘abode.’ A place of rest. Jesus says if you abide in His Word, His presence, His companionship, then you are truly His disciples. So that means that the health condition of our souls depends on whether we are able to abide. But in today’s world, and especially among people serving in ministry, abiding is the most difficult to do.

Ask anyone in church, ‘How has your week been?’ And what they’ll say is, ‘It’s been busy.’ ‘It’s been good, just busy.’ ‘I’m so tired, and busy.’

We’re always busy, trying to play catchup with our schedules. And many times what that means is that we’re rushing through our time with God. Either we don’t have enough time or we don’t have enough energy. We pick up our Bibles either with hurry or lethargy, and sometimes even both. That’s not what it means to abide. And unless we abide in the Word of God, our souls are going to be in poor condition. We may accomplish many things physically, but our souls will constantly be playing catchup with our bodies. That’s not what we want, and that’s not what God wants for us.

Why is that? Doesn’t God want us to live maximal lives with the highest productivity? That’s not what the Bible teaches. Instead, Jesus says to abide in Him. In today’s world, that looks like submitting our bodies to the needs of our souls. That looks like restructuring our commitments to meet the cadence and tempo of our souls.

We achieve inner peace when our schedule is aligned with our values.

Disciples of Jesus in today’s world must restructure their lives around abiding in Jesus. This sounds naive, but this is what the Bible teaches. Why? Because our spirituality depends on it.

Knowing the truth

So we’ve covered what it means to abide in God’s Word. Jesus then says that we will know the truth. To know is ‘ginosko’ in Greek, and it has a wide range of uses, in the same way that there are many ways of knowing something.

There are also many ways to measure spirituality, but one such way is this: spirituality is our capacity to receive and give love in our relationships with God and with others.

How to we receive love from God? God loves us so much, and we receive that love by abiding in Him.

A wife isn’t going to feel loved by her husband if she doesn’t make time for him. It doesn’t even matter whether her husband loves her a lot or a little. She’s not going to receive it if she doesn’t spend time with him.

She can say ‘I know my husband loves me.’ But that way of knowing is only theoretical and intellectual. It’s not the way of knowing love that God intends for us to have.

It’s the difference between knowing that honey is sweet, and tasting the sweetness of honey for yourself.

Now, can a person doesn’t receive God’s love also be a person who loves others with God’s love? The answer is no. As Jesus said, in today’s passage, those who abide in His Word are truly His disciples. Let us now turn to another passage.

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus says that all people will know that we are His disciples. How? By our love for one another. So what this means is that the health of our souls, the health of this cell group, and the health of our church depends on whether we abide in Jesus or not.

W. F. Adams was an Anglican priest and C.S. Lewis’ spiritual director. And he called hurry the death of prayer. Hurry is the death of prayer.

So we grow in our spirituality by growing in our capacity to receive and give love to God and others. And we can grow our spirituality by restructuring our schedules to make time for Jesus in Word and prayer, because that lets us receive more love from God.

The truth will set you free

Let us now look at the final

Corrie Ten Boom: If the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.

1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

In the books about parenting, there’s a saying that often comes up: ‘To a child, love is spelled T-I-M-E.’ This is true not only for parents and children, but also for our relationship with God.