Rob Witham

One of my children made a statement last year that speaks loudly of our modern outlook on spirituality. The exact subject of the conversation is now forgotten but one statement sticks in my mind. “But Dad,” my son said, “you can’t think about God all the time!” This is a child who has been raised in church and surrounded by Christianity his entire life. My children now attend a large, successful, Bible-teaching church - and they see no problem with compartmentalizing their faith. My experience suggests that they are not alone.

Compartmentalization is a trademark trait of our culture. The extent to which certain phrases have crept into our language proves this:

• Personal Life
• Work Life
• Social Life
• Spiritual Life

Compartmentalization

The question is whether the Bible allows for a compartmentalization or separation of faith from other areas of life, or does the Bible require a holistic approach to life where faith and God are integrated with every other area of life. I believe a faithful and honest reading of the Scriptures must leave us with the conclusion that any attempt to separate faith and God from other areas of life is inappropriate and wrong.

At least two components of an integrated, holistic life come to mind: practice and thinking. These are closely related and overlap:

• What we do all day will have an impact on what we think
• What we think about all day will have an impact on what we do (Matthew 15.10-20)

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6.33 NRSV

How do we act like people of God and think about God continuously, as an integrated life? Practice and thinking both have a bearing on achieving the desired results. I do not propose these ideas as a legalistic solution to the question but rather to hopefully provides some helpful insights to the situation.

Practice

True Christianity affects every area of our life - not just our “spiritual life.” Christianity was never intended to be a part of our life. Christianity was intended to be our life. Following Jesus should rightly be a completely life-altering journey that is necessarily counter-cultural most of the time.

Jesus’ sermon on the mount is a wonderful example of how following Jesus must impact every area of life. Jesus’ message on the mountainside, recorded in Matthew 5-7, is a lengthy discourse on how his followers should live. Jesus makes no distinction between the work, social, personal or spiritual life. There is simply “the Way.”

Consider the following brief outline of Jesus’ sermon on the mount:

• The beatitudes or blessings, most of which are quite counter-cultural
• Jesus’ followers are salt and light to a lost and dark world
• Righteousness, self-righteousness, and the Law
• Anger
• Adultery and sexual immorality
• Divorce and marital relations
• Oaths, agreements, and contracts
• Revenge and retaliation
• Love for enemies
• Almsgiving and charity
• Prayer
• Fasting
• Money and treasure
• Worry, fretting, and material concerns
• Judging other people
• The golden rule
• The narrow gate and the wide gate
• Actions compared to a tree and its fruit
• Self-deception in our connection to God
• Being hearers or doers

The sermon on the mount reveals just how life-changing and life-impacting following Jesus is supposed to be. This message, delivered by Jesus himself, reveals his assumption that following him will impact every area of our lives.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10.31 NRSV

Thinking

When I use the term “thinking” here I have in mind:

• being conscious of God
• being aware of God
• being connected to God
• meditating on God

I love the opening scene from Fiddler on the Roof. As the film starts we find a gentleman walking along a country lane with a cow. The man is in the midst of a conversation, whether with the cow or with another person off camera is not clear. But then the conversation becomes clear - the man is talking to God as if God were walking next to him. This practice continues throughout the story. This type of prayer has been called “conversational prayer” or “conversational intimacy.”

Perhaps the saddest part is that such a thing seems strange to us. What a wonderful thing to be so aware of God that we talk with him all day as with a friend sitting beside us.

That we should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence, by continually conversing with him. That it was a shameful thing to quit his conversation, to think of trifles and fooleries.

Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God

Throughout the Bible we find God giving his people signs, reminders, holidays, seasons, rituals and holy days to remind them of him on a regular basis. God knows our tendency to forget him in the midst of our self-appointed busyness. Throughout history we also find holy men and women developing habits and practices to help them stay connected to and conscious of God.

Remembrances Created By God

• Genesis 9.11-17 - God gave the rainbow as a sign of a covenant
• Deuteronomy 27.1-10 - God instructed his people to build an altar at Mt Ebal upon entering the promised land so that they would remember him
• Deuteronomy 31.9-13 - God instructed that the Law be read every seven years during Festival of Booths
• Luke 22.19-22 - Jesus instructed his disciples to observe the Passover meal in remembrance of him

Remembrances Created By Saints

• Joshua 4.1-9 - Twelve stones were set up as a memorial at Gilgal to commemorate God’s faithfulness and to facilitate spiritual communication between parents and children
• Daniel 6.10 - Daniel observed the practice of kneeling in his room to pray three times each day
• Acts 3.1-2 - Peter and John continued Daniel’s habit and went up to the temple to pray at the hour of prayer (3:00 in the afternoon)
• Psalm 119.164 David said “seven times a day will I praise you…”

God has always provided seasons, rhythms and signs to remind us of him. Holy men and women who earnestly sought God have always found ways to build sacred structure into their lives so that they could continually think of God.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.

Deuteronomy 6.4-13

God went out of his way to provide every possible structure and reminder to his people. What else can be said?

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22.34-40

It would be impossible to satisfy these two commandments without wholeheartedly following God, without thinking about God all of the time.

Action Points

The following thoughts are provided as action points. Prayerfully consider the following thoughts and see what God reveals to you.

• Consider how much time you spend thinking about God compared to thinking about other things
• Consider whether perhaps you tend to separate your “spiritual life” from other areas of your life
• Consider ways you can build rhythms, seasons and habits into your life to facilitate remembering God in all of your thoughts and actions

Feedback

What are some habits you have found useful in cultivating awareness of God?