Icebergs and Spiritual Growth

When it comes to how we approach our spiritual lives, many of us only look at the tip of the iceberg. We only focus on what appears on the surface.

• I go to church.
• I pray before meals.
• I hold the door for strangers.
• I pay my taxes.

Since I do all (or most) of these things, I must be a pretty good person. In fact, compared to that guy over there, I’m a really great person.

I can live that way and never worry about what lies below the surface. Based on my experience, it’s not the exposed parts of the iceberg that do the most damage. By focusing on externals, I can convince myself that I’m doing alright … and avoid having to deal with what is in my heart.

That way of living eventually catches up to you.

Jesus put it this way: “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come — sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:21–23)

The greatest threat to your spiritual wellbeing is not what is happening around you but what is happening inside of you.

Many of our attempts at self-transformation are simply cosmetic adjustments made at surface level. I’m going to …

• Smile more
• Listen better
• Be more patient
• Send flowers

These are good decisions and won’t cost you too much time or money (with the exception of the flowers). I’d recommend each one of them.

But my real problem isn’t a surface level problem. It’s a heart problem. It’s the bottom two-thirds of the iceberg, the part that lurks beneath the surface and influences my thoughts and actions.

What I really need is a transformation of the heart.

No amount of will power or hard work can transform your heart. Only the work of Jesus on the cross can do that.

What you really need to hear (and believe) is the voice of God.

If you are trying to live the right way but believe the wrong things, you will never truly live the right way.

When it comes to right beliefs, not all voices are equal. Some are well-intentioned but wrong. Other voices might be void of any good intention at all. Since not all voices are equal, it’s important to listen to the right voice.

In particular, there are three voices all vying for our attention:

• What other people say about me.
• What I say about myself.
• What God says about me.

Only one of those voices is right one hundred percent of the time — and it sure isn’t my voice … or your voice!

My own voice is often self-serving or skewed, which is another way of saying it is often wrong. My own perspective resembles what you see when you look into a carnival mirror — it never reflects reality.

Allowing the voices of other people to shape your identity leads to a bad case of motion sickness. Opinions are always changing. What was once normal becomes abnormal and the abnormal becomes normal.

The most healthy, mature Christ-followers I know are the ones who allow God to shape their identity.

When I listen to God’s voice, this is what I hear:

• I am justified by my faith and now have peace with God through our Christ (Romans 5:1–5)
• I am rooted in Christ and grounded in his love(Ephesians 3:17)
• I am never alone for God is always with me (Joshua 1: 5)
• God loves me with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)
• I am a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• I am always protected because God neither sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121:3)
• I am the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13–14)
• I am a child of the most high God (Psalm 82:6)
• I am forgiven (Psalm 103:12)

To hear God’s voice requires spending time in his word. It requires times of prayer when we do more listening than talking.

When you hear God’s voice, you can trust that what he tells you is always true.