Spiritual Discipline

Earl Creps challenges us that we need the work of the Holy Spirit in rearranging ouir interior life in order for us to become more like the Jesus Christ we purport to follow. The main way we work with God in this fashion is to engage in the spiritual disciplines. Perhaps you believe that there are only two, prayer and Bible reading, but I assure you there are many more!

These opportunities for spiritual growth contain several dilemmas, according to Creps:

Scarcity: despite their benefits, they are not practiced enough.

Practicality: they tend to operate in isolation from real life, serving as the “national anthem” before the ball game that starts whenever we go to work.

Performance: they cannot be correlated to ministry “success” in any consistent way; in other words, unspiritual people accomplish a lot while more spiritual people labor in obscurity.

Character: to speak for myself, I’ve met too many bad people who practice these disciplines rigorously and are unchanged by them.

Mission: churches are filled with people who are committed to prayer and Scripture but either have no concern for mission or actively resist the changes that it requires.

“The Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our normal daily activities. If they are to have any transforming effect, the effect must be found in the ordinary junctures of human life.” Richard Foster

How are you in engaging in regular times of reflection of following Christ? Are you able to pray, fast, read, give, and to see opportunities for Jesus to mold you daily?