Here’s part 2 of my teaching I gave to the squad last month!
Examples of spiritual disciplines:
Disclaimer: The goal is not to do all of the disciplines all of the time. That’s not practical or even possible. A healthy, maturing follower of Jesus has a few of these practices in their life all the time. Engaging a few of these disciplines routinely in their life. Some disciplines will be easier and more natural than others, but don’t just do those that are easy for you. Sometimes we see growth through harmony and sometimes we see growth through friction, but both are necessary.
Here’s a list of disciplines from the book (Celebration of Discipline):
Inward disciplines- meditation, prayer, fasting, study, renewing of the mind
Outward disciplines- simplicity, solitude, silence, sabbath, submission, service
Corporate discipline- confession, worship, guidance, mentoring, celebration
(If you want to know more about these, you can reach out to me or check out the book!
Spiritual discipline can feel confining to us when we think it’s about following rules…Spiritual discipline is freeing when we recognize it’s actually about growth into who God has created us to be.
How to discern which spiritual discipline to incorporate as rhythms:
Rhythm- a strong, regular, repeated sequence of sounds, events, actions, or processes
Some questions you might ask while planning: How often will you do each thing? Will you assign it for a certain day? What are your daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms?
When planning this out, make it realistic. It’s about setting a standard for your life that you do not want to drop below. This might mean starting small and increasing as we continue to practice
When planning consider 3 things:
1. self-assessment (strengths and weaknesses of your character, which fruits of the Spirit come more naturally for you and which you need to work on, feedback)
2. explanation of how you will practice it (frequency and duration, what is actually practical for you on the World Race…can vary month to month, what kind of balance do you currently need in your life)
3. form of accountability (writing it out and talking to teammates, letting them into the discernment of disciplines that need to be re-accessed or adapted)
Closing thoughts
How much of our efforts are us running around trying to control how fruitful our life is? Trying to control results that we can’t control. If instead we focus on what we can control, God gets to decide the rest — how fruitful our lives are, how that fruit is born, and what happens with all of it.
Remember: if we create a space, God will fill it…but He may fill it differently than we expect.
As you start deciding these things remember — Spiritual discipline does not ask ‘what do I need to do in order to get it right and be a good person’ but instead ‘how can I conspire with the Spirit to be formed into the kind of person God has called me to be.
I’ve taken time to plan what my spiritual disciplines and rhythms will look like for this month, and I wanted to share that with you guys!
Here’s a picture of my disciplines I hung up in my room this month:
Fundraising update:
The Lord has graciously provided $4,813 in just these few months, WOOHOO! I still have about $2,000 to go. To help with that, I’ve got my current “Buy a Box Raffle” fundraiser. I’m currently purchasing from each country I’m in, and will raffle them off once I’m fully funded. You can buy a white box to enter you name in the raffle. Box 10 = $10 = 1 name in the raffle. Box 90 = $90 = 9 names in the raffle. The higher the box number, the higher your chances are of winning! Here’s the most up to date picture of the available boxes with the newest gift: a coffee mug from Nicaragua!
Here’s the most up to date picture, box 40 is now taken as well. The items I collected from Guatemala include a painting of Antigua and a bag of coffee beans (check my past blogs to see pictures)!
To donate click the “support me” link on the left, and let me know which box you would like to claim. This fundraiser has already raised $1,205 and there’s still so many open boxes. This shows that every little bit really does add up!
