The Gift of Spiritual Disciplines
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase spiritual disciplines?
For many people, the words can trigger thoughts of religious duty, striving, or obligation. Some may not be able to name many spiritual disciplines, yet they immediately feel guilt, boredom, dryness, or weariness when the topic comes up. Perhaps it's the word discipline itself that creates resistance.
But what if we've misunderstood these practices?
Spiritual disciplines are not meant to be burdensome obligations. They are gifts—practical ways of drawing near to God and experiencing His grace. Think of them as pathways that help direct our attention toward Him. They don't create God's presence, but they help us become more aware of it.
Many believers have found practices such as Bible reading, study, and meditation helpful for focusing their hearts on God. Others connect deeply through prayer—whether through silence, stillness, solitude, listening, or honest conversation with Him. Reflection and self-examination can...
Surface Shame and Live Free
What is your experience of shame? Usually we don’t recognize the ways shame affects us. It lurks well under the surface of our lives stealthily affecting our decision making and actions.Â
Shame can be defined many ways, but let's think of it as humiliation or distress that attaches to a person’s identity as result of wrong or foolish thought or behavior. These thoughts and behaviors can be our own or those of another toward us.Â
Adam and Eve were described in the Garden as naked, yet without shame before God or each other. (Genesis 2:25) However, after their sinful rebellion (the Fall) all people throughout history have struggled with shame-infected identities.
Shame is closely tied to feelings and fears, primarily the fear of being found out as flawed, weak, a failure or morally wrong. It leads people – as it did Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 - to hide from each other and/or from God. We hide so we won’t be found out. The more shame we feel, the more of ourselves we hide from ourselve...
Are You Aware?
Why do people become friends or get married? Usually they want to be with each other and enjoy one another’s company. When I was courting my wife, I wanted to be with her all the time – nothing else compared. This is a shadow of God’s created order.
God created you, and He likes you, and He wants to be with you. That is why He formed and fashioned you. (You may want to take some time and let this sink into your soul – it is bedrock understanding for deep, experiential identity.)
If God created you in order to enjoy you, it follows that you will enjoy life and be most satisfied when you are aware of and are enjoying His presence, too. Unfortunately, our attention is prone to wander! We may go long periods of time without even thinking of God, let alone experiencing His presence. We can easily become distracted by others, worries, concerns, or our own obsessions.
What do we do when we realize that we have, for all practical purposes, been living apart from God? Some feel guilty, and h...
Categories
All Categories© 2018 Greater Formation
