When you are spiritually cold…
The puritan pastor Richard Baxter confessed, “I am dull and cold, and negligent in all: I am far from doing it (the spiritual disciplines) with my might: I hear, and read, and pray as if I did it not, and as if I were half asleep, or my heart were away upon somewhere else.” Have you ever felt like your spiritual temperature was low? If you have walked with Christ long enough, I am sure you have. Baxter warns us, “You will have a backward, slothful heart to strive with while you live; but bless God that you are offended with it, and would fain be delivered from it.”
He goes on to give us a few suggestions on how to warm up our spiritually cold hearts. First, we should make no provision for the flesh. He said, “Take heed lest any worldly design or interest, or any lusts or sensual delight, divert your minds from God and duty. For if you be alive to the world, you will be in that measure dead to God.” What is it that draws your heart away from Christ? The farther we move away from the fire in winter, the colder we become. The farther we move away from the fire of Christ, the spiritually colder we will become. Even good things can distract us, or draw us away, from Him. Make no provision for the flesh.
Secondly, fuel the spiritual fires in your life by being faithful to the church. We could say, be sure to feed yourself the word corporately. Baxter wrote, “If it be possible, live under a lively ministry, that when your hearts go cold and dull unto the assemblies, they may come warm and quickened home. Life cherishes life as fire kindles fire.”
Thirdly, in order to break free from the spiritual chills, we need a close friend, mentor, or confidant. Baxter said, “Converse with lively, active, stirring christians; but especially have one such for a bosom friend, that will warm you when you are cold, and help to awake you when you drop asleep and will not comply with you in a declining lazy, and unprofitable course.” This reminds me of the relationship between Christian and Hopeful in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Christian was able to make it out of the trap of Giant Despair and escape Doubting Castle with the help of Hopeful and the key of promise. Hopeful encouraged Christian forward as he crossed the river Jordan into the promised land. May God provide all of us a Hopeful in our lives!
Finally, we can find spiritual warmth as we take our eyes off of this life, and put them on the life to come. Baxter said, “Look not for long life. It is the life to come that must be the life of all your duties here, and distant things do lose their force. Set death, and judgement, and eternal life continually as near at hand: live in a watchful exception of your change: do all as dying men, and as passing to receive the recompense of endless joy or woe; and this will quicken you to this end. Keep always a sense of the brevity of life, and of the preciousness of time, and remember that it is posting on whether you work or play.”
Though this list of encouragements from Baxter is not exhaustive. Hopefully it is helpful! To break free from spiritual dullness, cut off all provision for the flesh, fuel the spiritual fires in your life, find yourself a Hopeful, and keep your eyes on eternity! Spiritual winters are eventually followed by a refreshing spring and long summer days. Hang in there.
