Putting myself on a writing schedule is getting kinda tiring but I know that it’s good for me and I know it will make me better at writing and will make me better at talking about theology and the Bible. One of the habits I’ve picked up recently is listening to the Ask NT Wright Anything podcast. Some days, I even look forward to getting in the car to listen to two British guys discuss theology. In one of these episodes, Wright mentioned how he is not hard on himself if he misses a day of his morning Bible reading and prayer due to travel because life happens. He said that it was more important to get back on track quickly than it is to feel guilty about missing a day. This mindset is valuable because shame is not going to sanctify us and delaying our return to productive habits because of shame is only going to do further damage to our spiritual health.
Typically, Christians will say that spiritual disciplines are praying, reading the Bible, singing worship music, and fasting. These are very basic understandings of what spiritual disciplines are. One of the important resources that I have been shown is the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. This book contains seventy-five different spiritual disciplines and includes different ways to focus prayer.
For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.
You must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You have the authority to correct them when necessary, so don’t let anyone disregard what you say.
Titus 2:11-15, NLT
Wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God. These are the things that we want to gain through our disciplines, these are the things we gain through being made holy. If we do not dedicate our time to the Lord then we will never dedicate our lives to the Lord. We are called to be living sacrifices and this is only possible if we are close to the Father.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT
When we become a new person, our disciplines become habits. Pray for this to happen. We want to be more like Jesus. This will only happen when we seek the Lord and His will. Will you allow yourself to be transformed into a new person and become more like Jesus Christ? You must surrender yourself to this and allow yourself to love the time you spend with God. When this happens, your disciplines become habits.
Moments with Emmanuel 