Some time ago, I had the pleasure of being involved with discipling a teen in my church. He wasn't really walking with God when I first met him. There was one day when I just asked him if he wanted to practice martial arts because I had experience in it and I knew that he studied. It's amazing what God can show you when you invest in other people's lives. I will call him "Chip" for privacy purposes. Chip had a real affinity for martial arts, he had pretty good technique and he could throw good kicks. The thing is, he could learn things fast and emulate them but he lacked the patience and diligence to perfect his basics. He could throw a kick hard, high and fast but he couldn't throw kicks slowly with control. The stabilizer muscles in his legs weren't that strong, so he would easily lose his balance. I made him throw kicks slowly and stress developing his core muscles and technique. People who blow themselves out by just trying to get to the end often end up with injuries or just get tired and give up when they don't see the results that they thought would bring satisfaction. This young man gave his life to the Lord at a conference and became one of the most hungry teens for God that I had ever seen.

I checked up on him now and then and one Sunday in particular he seemed kind of off. I asked him how youth group was going and he looked down and confessed he hadn't been going. He said he had playing football with some kids and how he wanted to preach to them but he hadn't. He looked ashamed and tired. He would always tell me how he would witness to his friends and sometimes he would get frustrated when people didn't repent and receive Jesus right then and there. I emphasized knowing God and having a quiet time to be alone with the Lord and hear from Him. He wanted to throw his techniques flashy, fast and hard but he lacked stability. Too often we get away from the basics and it takes a life time of diligence by grace to master them.

Trials are necessary in this process, the book of James says to let "patience have its perfect work" in the midst of a trial. Trials are when we realize it's not about us, we're not as spiritual as we think we are and it's where God does His best work in us. Trials are an opportunity to die, to embrace the cross and know intimately all that Christ has earned for us in His suffering. Jesus said that if we are to follow Him that we are to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow after Him. I think there is a distinction between denying ourselves and taking up our cross. Denying oneself simply takes discipline but taking up our cross takes faith in God. When we deny ourselves, we deny the sinful desires of our fallen nature but in the midst of trials is when we die to self - the good and the bad and is replaced with the life of Christ. When God does a work in us it isn't merely "putting things behind us" but a replacement of what we see as good with God's best. Even our best fleshly efforts are incomplete but Romans 8 says that when we follow the Holy Spirit we walk in the fulfillment of God's law. To walk as Christ did takes dying to the flesh and full reliance on the Spirit and cooperation with Him.

Some can deny themselves alright for a brief period of time and put on a nice, exterior religious guise but their pride still hasn't been dealt with. David prayed that God would cleanse him of his "secret sins" and not to let pride have dominion over him. The pharisees knew self-denial and could put on a nice facade but they didn't abhor the wickedness of their own hearts and embrace God's remedy. The deep inner work of the cross results in the lifestyle on the sermon on the mount; finding joy in being reviled and praying for those who curse us, forgiving people, finding the Lord in the secret place, giving sacrificially - all because we desire to love God first and people second. This comes and grows and patience has its work as we are faced with trials that are too much for us to handle in our own strength and we come to the end of ourselves. New life springs up in us and we have deeper revelation of God's complete and perfect love for us. But there has to be the process of dying to self so that we aren't reliant on ourselves or how devoted we perceive ourselves to be but we have faith in Jesus and His work. Instead to trying to do things so that we can feel like we're somebody, we realize more of who God is and who we are in Him and from there come good works that are acceptable to God. Our good works should come from the place of already being accepted in Him.

Too often we lose sight of the basics but God's commands aren't burdensome - His commands are to trust Him and love people. Jesus said that the work of God is to believe in the One whom He sent (John 6:28-30). Too often we tell ourselves merely to do. To those who don't live lives of obedience, the book of James says their faith is dead not that they need to do more. Faith in Jesus will produce obedience, by the grace of almighty God it will because faith by its very nature is only expressed in action. Faith isn't merely mental acknowledge but it is an inward compulsion that grows as we know more about the object of our faith. Knowing Jesus through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is crucial because we must know Him whom we believe in order to work the works of God. And a big part of this is the spiritual process of the cross in our lives that God works in us through various trials and temptations so that we aren't just outward, flashy Christians but people who have the real presence of God in their lives.