Waiting: Spiritual Disciplines

During one season of life, I hated a particular “dirty four letter word”: wait. I was an angsty college student, single but didn’t want to be, and desperately trying to discern the Lord’s calling on my life. To all my prayers, I continued to get the same response: wait. It came so often and in so many forms that it became a “dirty four letter word,” and when I would hear it again, I would groan. Be quiet, child, and wait—it was the resounding word, in the Scripture I was reading, in my prayers, in the counsel of those I trusted. Wait for answers. Wait for His timing. Wait for healing. Wait to understand what He’s doing.

I had a small strip of cardstock taped to my desk during this season, on which I had scrawled a short snippet of Hosea 6:3: “As surely as the sun rises, he will appear.” Because of the surety of God’s appearing, Hosea calls us to “press on to know the Lord.” We can wait for God, and we can come to know Him better in the waiting, because it is his nature to be known and not forever hidden from us.

I’m never sure whether to be comforted or terrified by the waiting we see encapsulated in the Bible—Abraham and Sarah waiting for a promised child, the Israelites waiting to be freed from slavery in Egypt, David waiting to finally become king, the prophets waiting for justice, God’s people waiting for a Messiah, the church waiting to see the fulfillment of the Kingdom. Waiting is not foreign to this journey of faith, and God is patient and moves on His own timetable, not our own.

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Gratitude: Spiritual Disciplines

This post is a part of an ongoing series on spiritual disciplines, which are tools that bring us into contact with the Lord so that His presence can shape our lives. Learn more here.

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It’s nearly impossible to not think about thanks-giving during this season of the year. How could you not, as we anticipate and plan for a holiday by the same name? Tomorrow, many of us will gather with family and friends around food-laden tables to celebrate Thanksgiving. Some families will set aside time during the day to reflect on the year and speak their thanks for the blessings within it.

While it’s helpful to mark seasons for thanksgiving into our year, Thanksgiving is more than a holiday, as I’m sure most of you would agree. It is appropriate all year round, in all seasons. But while we know thanksgiving and gratitude should be continuous threads weaving through our lives, how often do we think of gratitude as a spiritual discipline?

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Bible Study Methods: Spiritual Disciplines

Most of us have been there—sitting down in the morning, cup of coffee in one hand, Bible in the other. We flip through thin pages until we find where we left off the day before, and we pick up with the next chapter or verse. The tiny words dance in front of our eyes, as we try to concentrate, try to pay attention to what the Lord might have for us in His Word that morning. We read the section—a few verses, a few chapters—and although we know we did something good by taking the time to read the Bible, we’re left with the question “now what?” as we end. So we sigh, not sure how to approach this passage of Scripture, not really sure what to do with it, we close the covers of our Bibles and put it away until (hopefully) the next morning.

While I hope that this is not always the case for us, friends, I know there are seasons in which we need something fresh to apply to our Bible study. It is not that the Bible is insufficient. It is that our eyes and ears need some freshening up. We need to cycle back to the simple basics.

I have said previously that there is more to spiritual disciplines than the traditional evangelical “quiet time.” This is true. But regardless of what our spiritual life may look like, we cannot escape the importance of the Bible. It must find a place in our walk with the Lord—though what that looks like may vary based on our season of life or temperament. The Bible contains the words of God for us. It reminds us who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing. It shows us his way to live, inviting us into the abundant life of following his commands. We cannot set the Bible aside or shrug off the critical importance it holds for the Christian life.

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Fixed Hour Prayer: Spiritual Disciplines

This post is a part of an ongoing series on spiritual disciplines, which are tools that bring us into contact with the Lord so that His presence can shape our lives. Learn more here.

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For hundreds of years, monks in monastic orders across the world have paused throughout the day to pray. These structured prayer times are typically called the Daily (or Divine) Office or the Liturgy of the Hours. Since the 5th-century, there have been seven set times of prayer for monastic communities (though in the 6th-century, Benedict added an 8th prayer time).

It’s easy to see how your day would become shaped around and centered on prayer if about every three hours—including the middle of the night—you stopped what you were doing to pray. It would change your focus. God could not be an afterthought.

This wasn’t a practice that was made up in the early middle ages, though. Regular times of prayer throughout the day was a Jewish practice, it would seem, since the time of the Old Testament. It was also a part of the early Christian church.

Consider any mother at home with young children—it’s impossible for them to be forgotten because they keep breaking into her world. They need fed. Diapers need changed. Conflicts need resolving. She cannot lose sight of her children—they wouldn’t let her because they continue to break into her day.

The reality of God’s presence and rule over the day was just as apparent for these Christians. He could not be avoided or crowded out. The day was structured so that He continuously broke in and interrupted their daily activities.

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What Are Spiritual Disciplines?

For the next several weeks, I’m going to be doing something new here on the blog. In addition to my usual musings, I will be adding an article once a week on a spiritual discipline. This will be a part of a new and ongoing facet of my blog, which will include some tools and resources of a more practical nature. As with all of my postings, please feel free to use and share them as you see fit.

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What comes to mind when you hear the words “spiritual discipline”?

Some of us cringe, perhaps awaiting a list of things to add to our to-do list, awaiting a long and dry conversation, awaiting the feelings of guilt that we aren’t “doing enough” in our relationship with God.

Some consider regular spiritual disciplines to be for the religious elite—those who really take their faith seriously and are particularly close to the Lord.

And some find them to be the familiar bread and butter of their life as a Christian, as these disciplines have become as regular and expected as showering and brushing their teeth in the morning.

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