Years ago I was visiting a friend who had a deep interest in the Bible. He appeared to be a sincere Christian, with a concern for people who were entangled with the evil in the world. He had a special interest in the Bible’s description of the time of the end, and the return of Christ. Finally he said, “I believe the Lord will return by 1980.”

“Are you ready?”

“No.”

There were things that troubled his conscience and he knew he would need to take care of them before he would be ready to meet the Lord. But he had a few years left to take care of those things.

When I am all by myself I can be a very spiritually minded person. But the Holy Spirit often reminds me that God doesn’t measure spirituality by abstract faith, the things that I say I believe, but by the things I do. A flare-up of anger when things go wrong is not evidence of the Holy Spirit. Not even righteous anger – especially not self-righteous anger. True spirituality is noticing other people, saying thank you often, doing little things to help someone, even when it interrupts my schedule, taking time to visit the lonely, apologizing when I have done wrong, accepting criticism with charity, maybe even thankfulness.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. John 13:17