A Heart Aflame For God
Each year, I search out a book to “knock the rust off” my devotional life. This exercise has always been helpful because of a simple fact - you never grow beyond the fundamentals. Some of the best athletes are those who have mastered the fundamentals, and some of the holiest Christians are of the same cloth. After this year, I will no longer search out a new book to refresh and repair my devotional life; rather, I will read A Heart Aflame For God each and every year. (Yes, it is that good!) For me to explain just why I would take such a bold stance, let me explain first Matthew Bingham’s project before explaining the particulars.
Bingham acknowledges at the outset a huge problem in evangelicalism - the sanctification gap. Evangelicalism by and large has been focused on outward expansion, not internal growth. In short, we focus on sharing the gospel, not savoring the gospel. In my own experience, I was quickly taught how to share the gospel, but I was not taught how to read the Bible, pray, or any other basic principles of spiritual formation. This “gap” has led to a significant amount of young people to leave for the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church. They are looking for more in terms of spiritual formation than “read these two verses and call me in the morning.” And, rightly so. To counter this trend, Bingham draws upon the Reformed writings of the 1500-1800s to demonstrate the richness of spiritual growth in the Reformed tradition. This “retrieval” functions in two ways. First, Bingham longs to restore the theological underpinnings of our spiritual life. He sees a trend in evangelical circles where men propose an eclectic path of spiritual formation, divorced from the scriptural and theological underpinnings of such. These works focus on the “how,” while ignoring the “why.” Bingham sees the “why” as first and fundamental to healthy spiritual growth. Second, Bingham draws upon a large swath of spiritual manuals to understand the “how” of spiritual formation. What we will find is that it is far more modest, yet challenging than what we are typically offered today. What is this “how”?
Bingham articulates what he calls the spiritual “trifecta” of reading, meditating, and prayer. Now, what does he envision? We read God speaking to us in the Bible, ponder and apply God’s truths, and pray them back to God. Or as Matthew Henry says, “The Bible is a letter God has sent to us and prayer is a letter we send to Him.” But I know what we are all asking - how much should we read? How long should we meditate? How long should my prayers be? Here is what I appreciate most of Bingham’s book. Read a portion sizable that you can enjoy. The consensus in Puritan literature is roughly a chapter a day. Lewis Bayly states: “One chapter thus read with understanding and meditated upon with application, will better feed and comfort thy soul than five read and run over without marking their scope or sense, or making any use of them to thine own self.” When we meditate, meditate enough to enflame our affections, for it is nothing but a “serious thinking upon God.” When we pray, pray long enough to converse with God. The goal isn’t checking a box, but communing with God. Where we prize reading the Bible in a year, our forefathers praised digestion over consumption.We consume media like ravenous wolves, but this leaves little time for deep thinking. Don’t think that this hasn’t influenced how we read the Bible. Bingham’s book serves as evidence that we need to slow down, and his writing style forces us to slow down. The question should not be “How much can we intake,” but “how much can we enjoy?”
Alongside this trifecta, Bingham proposes three parallel practices - self-examination, an enjoyment of nature, and Christian conversation. Without divulging too much of his work, these three all make perfect sense. Self-examination forces us to slow down and know our hearts. Without doing so, how can we know how to apply God’s truth to our hearts? Enjoying nature disconnects us from our fast-paced world and allows us to see God’s Scriptural truths illustrated in God’s created world. Lastly, Christian conversation uses the warmth of other’s affections to fan our own into flame. Have you not felt your heart for Christ burn within you as you talk of Him with others?
At the end of the day, Bingham forces us to slow down and ask, “How much of the modern world dictates my personal walk with Christ?” What we will see is that the old paths may be the better paths, that “new” is not always “better.” In our “Amazon Prime” culture, we need to recapture the vision that growth takes time - time spent with Christ, time spent with ourselves, time spent with other Christians. We need some time to slow down.
The only shortcoming of this book (to which the author admits) is that it focuses almost solely upon the individual, leaving out a discussion on corporate worship, sacraments, and so forth. I would argue that these are primary, not secondary; and they are likely the drawing force to other non-Protestant denominations. Evangelicalism has become a largely individual affair, and that problem has only been exacerbated since CoVid. As much as we need to slow down and spend better time with Christ, we also need to slow down and spend better time with Christ’s people. A Christian life built around “me and mine” will ultimately be a life lived below the calling of “Him and His.”
If you want to purchase this title, you can do so on Amazon. (Everyone else is sold out!) Or, you can borrow mine. If you pick it up, I’d love to buy you lunch and talk about it!
