13. My relationship with Jesus is best when I integrate my inner and outer lives with Him.
Re-read the guiding statement above and reflect on where you are experiencing this integration in your spiritual journey currently.
What do you sense the Spirit speaking to you about this season in your journey?
What is your desire in this aspect of your journey and relationship with Jesus?
Our human condition leads us to prioritize our physical world—the things we can touch, experience, talk to, purchase, take pictures of, post on social media, etc.
So it’s natural to begin our spiritual journey with Jesus by focusing on our outward life. We may give ourselves in dedicated service to Jesus, His Church, and His mission to the lost world. Our spiritual journey may include addressing issues of injustice and other kinds of work for Jesus. In some cases, our service may even become our identity.
At some point this outward season in our spiritual journey may be replaced by an inward focus. The human soul is amazing beyond description and as we turn our attention to our inner life—the life of our minds and hearts—we can experience a rich and full world. It is in this inner life that we experience a “simply being-with Jesus.” We discover that we do not need to strive for His approval. We are not under obligation to “make a difference” for Him.
In this inner season of our spiritual journey we grow to know Jesus more as a friend, less as a boss or commander-in-chief, and we experience growing intimacy with Him. This intimacy meets our deepest need for love, love that doesn’t need to be earned, completely without conditions. In this inner life with Jesus, we find our need for love is met. We recognize that all we had been striving for is actually available, within ourselves, with God.
Not everyone experiences this on their spiritual journey and few transition from an outward focus to an inner life without some painful experience of loss or failure. Those who do find the inner life are often reluctant to leave this deep satisfying intimacy with Jesus and so choose to stay in this place on their journey.
But this inner, intimate life, can become selfish and self-centered and should not represent the destination of our spiritual journey. Jesus, through His Spirit, will gently work to nudge us out of this season and into one that integrates our outer and inner life. We re-engage with Jesus in service, but now it is a “doing-with” Jesus instead of a “doing-for” Jesus.
We desire to be active again, but our joy comes not from what is accomplished, but from the shared experience of working with Him. Although it may appear to others that we are “back to normal,” we know that we are different. The way we engage now is different from how we did it in our previous outer life.