THE HIDDENNESS OF THE DEVOUT LIFE
Mathew
6:16-18 "When you fast, do not look somber as
the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.
I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you
fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious
to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your
Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The real difference in the believer who follows Christ
and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ, is that he is
more clearly aware than other men of the rebelliousness and perennial pride of
the flesh, he is conscious of his sloth and self-indulgence and knows that his
arrogance must be eradicated. Hence there is a need for daily self-discipline.
It is always true of the disciple that the spirit is willing but the flesh is
weak, and he must therefore “watch and pray.” The spirit knows the right way,
and desires to follow it, but the flesh lacks courage and finds it too hard,
too hazardous and wearisome, and so it stiles the voice of the spirit. The
spirit assents when Jesus bids us love our enemies, but flesh and blood are too
strong and prevent our carrying it out. Therefore we have to practice strictest
daily discipline; only so can the flesh learn the painful lesson that it has no
rights of its own. Regular daily prayer is a great help here and so is daily
meditation on the Word of God, and every kind of bodily discipline and
asceticism.
The flesh resists this daily humiliation, first by a
frontal attack, and later by hiding itself under the words of the spirit…we
thus excuse our self-indulgence and irregularity in prayer, in meditation and
in our bodily life. But the contrast between our behavior and the word of Jesus
is all too painfully evident…When all is said and done, the life of faith is
nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon
against the flesh. How is it possible to live the life of faith when we grow
weary of prayer, when we lose our taste for reading the Bible, and when sleep,
food and sensuality deprive us of the joy of communion with God?
The
Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg. 189.
