Day 33: The Spiritual Life (Luke 10:38-11:28)

One of the natural reactions, after meeting Jesus, is to want to live “the spiritual life.” By that I mean we realize we have not been living with God, and we now want a life united to him. And while we may not have been committing malicious sins, we were not living for God. Not living for God, living a life turned away from God, is living a life oriented toward self—toward sin.

I know you probably don’t want to read that bit about sin, but I believe it is true. It is why the word “repent” literally means, “turn around”—turn back toward God.

The question becomes, “How do we live a life committed to God?” It starts with staying focused on Jesus. Mary is an example of that. Given the opportunity to be with Jesus—in his literal presence—she seizes it! Next, it is spending time with God in prayer. The disciples instinctively know this, and they therefore seek out Jesus to teach them. He goes beyond the Lord’s Prayer (as we call it). He goes to the effectiveness of prayer by using a parable, the point of which is, God hears and answers your prayers—so pray!

Then there is the bit about Beelzebub. Why would I include it in a section on the spiritual life? One reason. Jesus says, who is not for me, is against me. Please read that again. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11:23) There is no middle ground. We cannot take part of Jesus’ teachings to justify ourselves and leave the bits we do not like. That is not living a spiritual life committed to Jesus. That is just kidding ourselves, and Jesus has some very strong words about it.

And this is not a suggestion. He notes that a person who hears the Word of God and keeps it is more blessed than his own mom—and she is pretty blessed (especially in the Luke’s Gospel).