Reducing Your Spiritual Dwell

The other day I had a difficult phone call to make. I knew I had to make it but I kept putting it off. I actually put it off all day and waited until the next day to make the call.

The time between the moment I decided to make the call and the moment I actually made the call is “dwell.” In this time, we dwell on the decision. Rather than ripping off the band-aid and getting it done, we prolong the anxiety and dwell on what might happen.

Has it ever happened to you? And how did it feel? I’m guessing not good.

We all have “dwell” in our lives. The time amount of time between when we decide to do something and we actually do it.

Some people make dwell a habit…a daily occurrence. Not anyone who is successful though.

Did you know there is “spiritual dwell”?

Spiritual dwell is the time between when you decide to pursue a spiritual activity and when you actually engage in the activity.

It could be minutes…like I decide to pray and actually start praying 15 minutes later.

It could be hours…like I decide to read the Bible today and finally get around to it 5 hours later.

Or it could be weeks…like I decide to go to church but miss the next three Sundays.

Spiritual dwell is one of the most common reasons followers of Jesus do not experience the spiritual growth they desire.

The simple reality is high performing followers of Jesus who experience the greatest spiritual growth have much less spiritual dwell in their lives than the average follower of Jesus.

Simply stated there is less time between when they decide to pursue a spiritual activity and when they get it done. A great example of this principle occurs through a conversation Jesus has with two men in Luke 9:59-62:

He said to another man, “Follow me.”

The man said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Another man came up to Jesus and said, “I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

What does it mean to put your hand to the plow and then look back?

In context, it means deciding to follow Jesus (putting your hand to the plow) and then pursuing some worldly goal (looking back). This is the height of spiritual dwell. Deciding to follow Jesus then pursuing other worldly things.

Yet to a smaller degree this happens every day for most followers of Jesus. Not to the extent that they stop following Jesus but to the extent they allow worldly pursuits to postpone their spiritual activities.

So how much spiritual dwell is there in your life? Probably too much.

For me, I find the easiest way to reduce my dwell is to put my spiritual activities into my calendar on a daily basis. If I want to spend time reading the Bible, I put it in my calendar as an appointment and it usually gets done.

If in the morning I have the good intention of reading the Bible that day but don’t put it in my calendar, somehow the day gets away from me and I don’t get the Bible reading done. Then I find myself at the end of the day thinking, well…I will get to it tomorrow. But then if I don’t put it in my calendar for tomorrow, the same thing seems to happen.

It is just like when you are at a party and someone says we need to get together soon. You both know that unless you both take out your calendars at that moment and put it in the calendar…it is not going to happen.

Imagine if at the beginning of your week you scheduled all the spiritual activities you desired to engage in during the week. What if you actually put them into your calendar? What would happen? You would decrease your spiritual dwell and increase your spiritual growth.

Try it this week. See what happens.