Passage: Spiritual Disciplines | Lesson 01
Darren Lo | March 8, 2015
As summer rolls around, students (and sometimes staff) become lazy in their spiritual disciplines. We will be doing a study of various spiritual disciplines and it's place in our lives this coming quarter so that students can evaluate and reflect upon where they are at, and hopefully come up with some summer action items by the end of the curriculum.
What are spiritual disciplines?
Primary requirement: Desiring God (Psalm 42:1-2)
Primary purpose: Godliness (1 Timothy 4:7-8)
Primary goal: Experience an authentic spiritual life and intimacy with God
Definition: Rooted in a desire to know God intimately, spiritual disciplines are deliberate, intentional habits and/or actions that encourage spiritual health and growth leading to a God-focused, authentic spiritual life.
Why practice spiritual disciplines?
- "Godly people are disciplined people"
Disciplines are just like physically working out, practicing an instrument, or spending a large amount of time at a hobby. Think of these as spiritual exercises aimed to draw closer to God and become more like Him in mind and heart. This is not easy and takes a lot of hard work--just like a workout. - Cultivate spiritual maturity
Disciplines put yourself in God's path to be ready for growth, change, and further spiritual understanding. This gives you an opportunity to see, seek, and know God's will. - Christians are called to become more mature
As believers, disciplines are the natural actions taken to grow in faith and knowledge of who we believe in.
THE CAUTION
- No guarantees. Doing spiritual disciplines alone do not automatically make you a more spiritually mature follower. At the core, they are spiritual actions, but God is the one who brings change to your life, not the actions by themselves.
- No time-table. These days, we expect change to come immediately. This is not the case with spiritual disciplines. In fact, be patient with these actions and many of these actions are a life-long process. Rely on God's timing for growth and change, not the amount you do or not do.
- No pride. Take no pride in your "success" of spiritual disciplines where you can easily turn a good thing into a bad thing. Once we begin counting the amount of disciplines we have achieved will lead us down a path to pride and legalism (see Pharisees).
THE RESULT
- Provides a mindset that of God and kingdom-mindedness. The time you spend will naturally result a place of understanding toward who God is and His will for you.
- Gal 6:8 provides a farming analogy and portray spiritual disciplines as the soil, water, fertilizer, and environment for the plant. The growth of the plant, however, belongs to God and should not be placed in these disciplines. Think of disciplines as avenues for growth to occur, not the growth itself.
- Freedom/liberty. Think about an athlete who excels in their sport. They have freedom to do nearly anything they want in games and competition. This is the same with practicing disciplines. They give freedom to grow and know God's direction for your life on a deeper level.
THE PRACTICE
Here is a list and chart (finally!) of the spiritual disciplines we will be unpacking in this curriculum. We may change/add/replace some of them, so there are a few blank cells. We will be answering and filling out specific areas pertaining to each discipline. The expectation will be for you to bring this chart each week for Passage. If you can't make it, come back to the blog to fill out the chart along with us!
My hope is that we begin to practice some (if not all) the spiritual disciplines throughout your college career. If we begin to add these to our daily habits, not only will be in a place to grow, we will be ready and available to tackle God's plan for our lives no matter how easy or difficult life may be ahead of us.
"On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." (1 Timothy 4:7-8)
Posts
