Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual disciplines. Are you still reading? For many of us the quickest way to sap our enthusiasm for an activity, to drain it of its potential joy and excitement, is to call it something like a “discipline.” It makes it sound like a boring chore, like hand sanding a floor or cleaning out closets. This is often the attitude we bring to Bible study and prayer, and of course, with such an attitude, we miss the thrilling reality in which we are involved, a conversation with the Almighty, grace and love filled Creator of the universe. Perhaps a more apt term is in order. Instead of “spiritual disciplines,” maybe we should call them “thrill rides” or “spirit invigorators.” Maybe “high-definition, super-charged, multi-colored, fantasticoes!” Okay, maybe that’s going a bit far! But when you consider what God is doing through these simple “disciplines,” conforming us to Christ, renewing our minds, hearing us and speaking to us personally... WOW!
Here is a verse to meditate on, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”( Luke 10:20, NKJV) What a beautiful truth! It was last week’s memory verse in the bulletin. This week’s is great too! Matthew 25:40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” Committing God’s word to memory is a wonderful spiritual discipline. It can lead us into a wonderful working knowledge of God’s word so that when we need to remember what the Bible says about something (eg. sin, God’s love, repentance, grace, Christ, works, wives, husbands, heaven, hope, faith, comfort, even taxes, etc.) the answers will be there, in our minds and hearts. I encourage you this week to embark on this wonderful (thrill ride) spiritual discipline and you will be nourished by its fruits for years to come!