Jeff Bridgforth :: Webcraftsman

Revolution Within — Approaches to Spiritual Lives

August 26, 2005

Books · Spiritual Musings

I am cur­rently read­ing Dwight Edward’s book, Rev­o­lu­tion Within. Dwight is a descen­dent of Jonathan Edwards. We did a Bible study this sum­mer in Hun­gary based on this book.

This week, I was read­ing in chap­ter 3. He talked about focus­ing on God’s glory as the main moti­va­tion in our lives. It was a very prac­ti­cal chap­ter. Dwight says that there are 2 ways to approach our spir­i­tual lives. The first is to live for God so we can fully exploit His bless­ings. The sec­ond approach is to live for God so we can fully reveal His name. I liked the way Edwards describes the dif­fer­ences in these approaches. The first asks, “what must I do to gain God’s bless­ing?” The sec­ond asks, “what can I do to bet­ter reflect God’s glory?”

I pray that God changes me so that I approach my spir­i­tual life with a focus on His glory. I am just begin­ning to see how this approach would bring a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive in response to things like suffering.