Spiritual Practices - the Path to Growth
Last week we talked about how trying harder to grow in our faith doesn’t work. Usually that “trying harder” involves just changing our actions. That tends to not work because we’re only dealing with the symptoms and not the causes. We need to back up and look at what we’re thinking about and what things we’re putting into our lives. If we want a different output, we need to change the inputs. You can read that post here.
OK, so what’s the answer? How do we change what we think about and use different “inputs”? Spiritual practices. Sometimes they’re called spiritual disciplines or spiritual habits, but it’s all the same thing.
They serve a couple of purposes. First, spiritual practices provide the right inputs into our lives. God’s Word, prayer, time alone with Him - they all are putting the truths into our lives that work to replace the lies that we believe. They affect what we’re thinking about, which in turn changes what we love and what we do.
Second, spiritual practices provide, well, practice. We don’t run a marathon by simply getting up one morning and running a marathon. We practice and slowly increase our endurance. We don’t lift heavy weights by just trying to lift them over and over. We practice first on lighter weights until we are strong enough to lift heavier weights. Spiritual practices help us to gradually grow in the different qualities that bring us in line with how designed us to live.
What are spiritual practices? These are some things that historically are considered spiritual practices, and rightly so:
reading and studying the Bible
prayer
fasting
solitude
giving
meditation (on God’s Word)
service
simplicity
rest/Sabbath
I don’t believe that’s an exhaustive list. I also think the application of these things can vary depending on your needs. Fasting, for example, is traditionally not eating any food for a period of time. That can be valuable. However, fasting from social media is also helpful and might be a good periodic practice. Fasting from desserts, from expensive coffee drinks, or fasting from watching TV could also be helpful.
But before we talk about application too much, let’s back up and look at the “why” of spiritual practices. We humans have this large tendency to become legalistic. We take “practices” and make them hard and fast rules. These practices are a means to an end, not the end itself. It’s easy to say that we fasted or read our Bible or prayed, so we’re good - we did the things and fulfilled our spiritual duty. When we take that attitude, we miss the point entirely. Spiritual practices are a vehicle. The destination is a closer walk with Jesus. We run into problems when we see the vehicle as the destination.
When you decide to implement a spiritual practice into your life, think about ways to keep it fresh. Remind yourself that the practice is meant to draw you closer to God.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be talking more about different spiritual practices and what they might look like today in our practical, everyday lives.
Which spiritual practices have you found to be most helpful? Which ones do you want to learn more about? Leave your answer in the comments.