feature
Every believer should regularly revisit their personal devotional life. At Bridge Church we encourage everyone to partner with us in SOAP journaling to ensure that there is an opportunity to read the Bible through each year and journal and pray on a regular basis. If you are regularly SOAP journaling, I am sure you are finding it a rewarding experience that enriches your life with God. But beyond the SOAP, there is a need in certain seasons to go deeper in our devotion. The central aim for every believer is to become like Christ and the only way we can do that is to follow Him in the overall lifestyle that He exemplified. In John 10:10, Jesus states that He came to give us an abundant life. If we believe that Jesus knew how to live in the full sense of what He was offering us, then would it not follow that in as many ways as possible, we should adopt the activities that Jesus practiced? There are so many lifestyle habits that made up Jesus’ life,
things like prayer, silence, solitude, fasting, sacrificial living, study and meditation and service to others. However, with all this, I never get the sense that Jesus lived anything but a fulfilling life. Yet when people think of the spiritual disciplines, there can be a tendency to see it as burdensome. The term “discipline” in this context does not engender the idea of something harsh. Nor should the idea of entering into something or abstaining from something for the sake of spiritual growth be seen as sacrificing ‘real’ living. Actually, our human body is our primary resource for expressing spiritual life, which is who we really are! Should we not therefore look for every opportunity to engage in expressions of who
we are in Christ? Surely, this is what real life is all about. William Ralph Inge, a minister/author once wrote; “A more reasonable estimate of human costs and values will lead us to think that no labour is better expended than that which explores the way to the treasurehouses of the spirit...” How true, but it is not until you begin to unwrap this thing called Christianity that you really begin to benefit from its riches. The two sides to spiritual discipline maintain the balance in Christian life. They are the inbreathing and the out breathing of existence. On one side are the disciplines of abstinence, where you might withdraw to some degree from things that you would consider normal life activity. On the other side are the disciplines of engagement, where you will enter into something in order to fulfil life and bring balance.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE MAIN DISCIPLINES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE:
DISCIPLINES OF ABSTINENCE. SOLITUDE AND SILENCE// Withdrawing from personal human interaction to allow God to confront the soul. It might be an hour on the beach with just you and God or an occasional day alone but imagine what it can do for your life in God. The key in our kind of society is finding a quiet place and then staying quiet! Try it. It’s not easy but in the moments where we don’t speak, God often does!
FASTING// In fasting we abstain significantly, if not totally, from food and most drinks for a period of time. The benefits are undeniable. In these moments, sustenance is not found in food, but in God alone. FRUGALITY// We live in such a consumer world that I believe this is a discipline we need to operate in and teach to our children. It is a need versus want discipline where we choose not to gratify a hunger for status, glamour or luxury. While we appreciate the blessings that come from living in Australia, practicing frugality helps keep perspective.
DISCIPLINES OF ENGAGEMENT. STUDY// Engaging in the written and spoken Word of God. This is the primary discipline of engagement. This is where we take the truth and meditate on it and delve into its riches. It is a thought that comes when you are journaling, or a Word through the preacher in a weekend service that grips your heart. Take it, meditate on it and grow from the riches God reveals.
WORSHIP// Dallas Willard says, “in worship we engage ourselves with, dwell upon, and express the greatness, beauty, and goodness of God..... alone as well as in union with God’s people. To worship is to see God as worthy, to ascribe great worth to Him.” Worship is key to a balanced Christian life.
CELEBRATION// This is the completion of worship where we celebrate the greatness of God. In celebration, we engage in enjoying the presence of God. Celebration is the coming together of God’s people to declare and share testimony of the great God of heaven and what He has done in our lives.
Spiritual Discipline. It’s not so scary is it? Note: Some of the thoughts for this article were derived from Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard Harper & Row, San Francisco 1988
ENCOURAGE
25