Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Spiritual Disciplines

Day 4


Spiritual Disciplines

Heather Weismiller

            To excel in anything in life discipline is required. This is true for athletes, musicians, plumbers, accountants, and disciples of Jesus. A discipline is something we can do that enables us to do what we haven’t yet been able to do by direct effort. Disciplines don’t set aside our need for grace nor do they earn us anything — they simply are means to help us be with Jesus to become like him.

The two key disciplines are Bible intake and prayer.  These are really the main point, and all the other disciplines are supportive of these two.  For example, fasting and solitude are means of intensifying prayer and enhancing the transforming power of the Word of God in us. 

Solitude: Solitude is a main discipline of abstinence in which we refrain from interacting with other people for a few hours or some days in order to be alone with God and be found by him.
We read in the Gospels that, “Jesus often withdrew into lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16).

Silence: “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Habakkuk 2:20).  Sadly silence is rare in our word today, including our Christian culture, but it is an essential discipline for the spiritual life in Christ. In the discipline of silence we abstain from sound in order to make space for a deeper engagement with God and other people.

Fasting: Going without food (or something else) for a period of intense prayer — the fast may be complete or partial.  While fasting Jesus said, “My food, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34).

Sabbath: Doing no work to rest in God’s person and provision; praying and playing with God and others. 

Secrecy: Not making our good deeds or qualities known to let God or others receive attention and to find our sufficiency in God alone.

Submission: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).   Submission is about denying ourselves the power or privilege we want. We’re choosing not to make things happen for ourselves, not to control people or situations even if we can, but instead to come under the Lord’s authority, wisdom, and power. Often this includes submitting to people as unto the Lord.

Spiritual disciplines are one of the key ways that we orient our lives around training toward godliness, as we read in our Upward Training core passage, 1 Timothy 4:6-10





What spiritual disciplines have you practiced?
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How did these impact your life?
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Which of the ones we read about today would you like to try? 
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