Disciplines That Test the Soul – Foundations of a Worldview

Disciplines That Test the Soul
Foundations of a Worldview

“…for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 13:3

God knows that active spiritual disciplines alone will not be sufficient to lead us into the knowledge of God and the enjoyment of His promises. We are, after all, sinners, and are naturally disposed to turn away from the Lord. We take up the active spiritual disciplines with all the best intentions; nevertheless, we can expect that we shall stumble and fall and be neglectful of these good gifts, simply because, though redeemed, we are still sinners.

Thus the Lord Himself is actively involved in disciplining us—“testing” us—so that we will seek and know Him as He intends. We experience the Lord’s active discipline as passive spiritual disciplines, disciplines that test our souls in order to try and strengthen them.

These come to us at God’s pleasure, according to our need. Passive spiritual disciplines are not necessarily pleasant; we would not sign up for these if we could avoid them (Heb. 12:3-11).

But God sends them to us—temptations, trials, deprivation, persecution, suffering, loss, and more—in order to strengthen our souls to fear and love Him more.

At times these come to us because we have provoked the displeasure of the Lord by failing to obey Him. At other times it pleases Him to send them simply because He knows something about our souls that we do not.

Both active and passive spiritual disciplines are necessary if we are to grow in our vision of God and in gaining His promises.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click here to see the weekly studies available thus far.

Want to grow your own spiritual disciplines as you learn more about the unseen realm? Order a copy of The Landscape of Unseen Things, T. M.’s 24-lesson study of that realm which anchors our Christian worldview.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).