We kicked off a new series last weekend at Mountainview entitled “The Passionate Life of MRS GREN.” MRS GREN is an acronym taken from the world of biology. It represents the seven vital signs of life:
- Movement
- Respiration
- Sensitivity
- Growth
- Reproduction
- Excretion
- Nutrition
In our first message, Jim reminded us that spiritual maturity happens when we choose to move. Without movement, we begin to experience muscle loss and grow stagnate. The same happens to our spiritual muscles when we refuse to move.
One of the biblical stories he shared was when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 13 and 14). After hundreds of years of being in bondage, they are finally on the threshold of freedom. And what do they do when they encounter their first obstacle? They want to return to bondage. To what is familiar.
As Jim said, sometimes we are tempted to return to what is familiar and comfortable even if it is harmful. Instead, God challenged them to move.
This weekend I will be exploring the idea of spiritual respiration. In the physical world, respiration happens automatically. We don‘t do a periodic check to see if we are breathing. We just breathe. It’s what living things do.
The same is true in our spiritual world. Spiritual respiration is about developing the ability to allow more of God into our lives. You might say it’s about increasing our “spiritual lung capacity.”
How do you get more of God in your life? You let more of him in.