Reflection on the Don Whitney Conference

Last weekend, Don Whitney a former pastor and current professor at Southern Seminary came to speak at our Church. He has come every year for the past 6 years and has spoken on, Fellowship, The Disciplines of the Church, How to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, and of course The Spiritual Disciplines.

This year he started over with the personal spiritual disciplines, specifically, meditation on the Word and praying through scripture. Though I have heard him speak on this subject before and read his book multiple times, I believe for myself it was an encouragement and much needed refresher.

Dr. Whitney is right in that praying through scripture and meditation is simple and once you have done it, it is like riding a bike-easy to remember. I believe it was 6 years ago when he taught this the first time and it has been a discipline that is not hard to maintain unless I simply refuse to open up to a Psalm. It is not complex nor boring-"saying the same old things about the same old things", as is common apart from praying through the scripture. I have benefited much in praying this way and using Don's biblical meditation methods. In fact, as was pointed out at the conference, we can read, meditate and pray all at the same time. This makes it more of a blessing and less of a list of "duties". I have found for myself that when I am doing the disciplines in faith, believing the Holy Spirit is working in me through them, the disciplines are a delight to my soul rather then a dreaded duty.

I personally have benefited through the repetition of going through the Spiritual Disciplines book and conferences- I have yet to master every discipline and certainly need the reminders of the reason behind the disciplines- they are making me more like Jesus.

So, Dr. Whitney, I thank you for taking the time for the sake of the body of Christ at large to write and teach these things that have so benefited me in my walk with Jesus Christ. You have had a large impact on my family as a whole. You have been and continue to be an influence on my husband who has led me and our children in his passion for growing in godliness through the disciplines. I already see how God is working in my two older children as they are daily reading God's word and even the two that do not read yet open up their Bibles and "read" with the rest of the family. For all this I am grateful to God and thankful for the opportunity to sit under your teaching.

For those who were unable to attend the conference, here is a link to some of Don Whitney's helpful materials that he has made available on his website.

A Gracious Women Serves Others

The woman who is gracious takes every opportunity to do good to all people (Galatians 6:7-10). She knows that her labor is not in vain. God is good and we as His people ought to be doing good to others.

The gracious woman knows that what she does for the least she does for Jesus. Hospitality (opening up your home and life), feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving the thirsty water to drink, visiting widows, caring for uncared for children, and lovingly giving to the poor are all done in faith with a heart of compassion and Jesus is there at the center of it all.

A gracious woman looks out for the interests of others in her home, community, church, and workplace. She isn't looking out for #1 as our flesh is so prone toward and our world rewards. God delights in and looks with grace on those who look out for the interests of others. This woman looks at Jesus and lives out Philippians 2:1-4- Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship in the Spirit, if any affection or compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests , but also for the interest of others.

Every time I read through Philippians 2, I realize how unlike Jesus I am and how filled I am with me, myself, and I. I want to be like Jesus and I trust that He is working that out in me, but I must still evaluate, repent, and in faith live out what I am becoming because of Jesus. These are just a few questions I use to evaluate myself in this area:

Does my husband trust I have his best interest in mind? (Proverbs 31:11-12)

Am I known as a woman who reaches out to those in need ? (Proverbs 31:19-20)

Does it look like I'll be considered a widow indeed if the the Lord sees fit I experience old age and loss of my husband? (1Timothy 5:3-5)

Tenderness, love, compassion, looking out for others; this is the life a gracious woman leads. All she does is motivated by the grace of God given her and she always has the good of her family, friends, and strangers God has ordained for her to minister to in mind.

Oh Father, as I pursue becoming a gracious woman I am in great need of Your grace.

O Lord,
Thou knowest my great unfitness for service, my present deadness, my inability to do anything for thy glory, my distressing coldness of heart. I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable, and loathe and abhor myself. I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest have me do, for I feel amazingly deserted by thee, and sense thy presence so little; Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth, and the dreadful sin of my nature, so that I feel all sin, I cannot think or act but every motion is sin. Return again with showers of converting grace to a poor gospel-abusing sinner. Help my soul to breathe after holiness, after a constant devotedness to thee, after growth in grace more abundantly everyday. O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness, and am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire; help me to hold out a little longer, until the happy hour of deliverance comes, for I cannot lift my soul to thee if thou of thy goodness bring me not nigh. Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender, lest I offend my blessed friend in thought and behavior; I confide in thee and lean upon thee, and need thee at all times to assist and lead me. O that all my distresses and apprehensions might prove but Christ's school to make me fit for greater service by teaching me the great lesson of humility. ( Prayer taken from Valley of Vision)

The Discipline of Worship - Part 2

Worship should be a continuous part of the Christian's life. We shouldn't set aside a portion of our day for worship and then not 'worry' about it for the rest of the day. Instead, we should always be looking for opportunities to bless the name of the Lord.
There are hundreds of opportunities for us to worship throughout our days. I am blessed every morning by driving past Lake Michigan on my way to school. I am amazed that it looks different every day, rough and gray yesterday, calm and bright blue today, then green and deep blue tomorrow. If I am looking for opportunities to worship, instead of simply enjoying the view, I can praise God for giving it to me. I can thank Him for His grace in allowing me to see it and appreciate it and marvel at His involvement with creation.
If I am running late for work or church and all the lights are green, I should take a moment to thank God for making it so. If all the lights are red, instead of getting anxious and angry, I can worship God being a God who keeps His promises - specifically the one where He promises never to give us more than we can handle. I use being late as an example because I am a spaz about being on time. Being late somewhere is one of the worst things I can imagine. :)
The basic point is to be looking for ways to worship God throughout the day. Look for times where it is consistently hard to worship and find a way to make it easier
For example, I am not a morning person. If I had my way, the world would stay up until 3am and not wake up until 11am. That would be great! Unfortunately, that is not the way it works and I usually have to get up at (gasp!) 7am to get to school on time. By the time I am in my car and on my way to school I really hate the world. So I got in the habit of making sure that I had Christian music in my cd player the night before set to a song that praises God for who He is. When I get in the car, and hear the music, it helps me tremendously to bring my heart and mind under control and focus it on worship. We all have bad times, but if we are looking for ways to worship in those bad times, it will be so much easier.
Attending church is a really obvious way to worship. Most people would agree that that is the main purpose of attending church. We sing before hearing the sermon at my church (and pretty much every church I've ever heard of) which is great in helping us to prepare our hearts for worship. But a lot of people I talk to think that that is the end of the worship. Once the singing stops, so does the worship. I can still remember a time last fall. I decided to try going to InterVarsity at my school to get to know some Christians my age. Most of my friends are a bit older than me....and married....and have children. :) I thought it would be cool to get to know people my own age. One night, as I was arriving, a friend came up and told me that we weren't going to be having any worship that evening. I honestly thought he was telling me that InterVarsity was canceled that evening. It turned out though, that all he meant was that we had a guest speaker coming in and he was going to talk for so long we didn't have time to sing.
This made me sad, that the act of hearing the Word was not considered worship. I wondered how we were able to worship without knowing the Word. If you remember from yesterday, we are to worship in spirit and in truth. Its not enough for us to get really psyched up because we like the music and the songs etc. If the emotion we are filled with is not gratitude, awe, humility, reverence, and love for our Lord THEN IT IS NOT WORSHIP!! Hearing the Word of God preached is an extremely important part of worship because without it we do not have the knowledge to worship. How can I thank God for His creation if I do not know He created it? How can I thank God for getting me to work on time if I do not know that He is sovereign?
As our knowledge of God and His works grows, so will our worship. As Jesus becomes more and more beautiful, our worship will become sweeter.
To wrap this series up, I would just like to say that all of the spiritual disciplines are very closely related. As you desire to grow in each one, the others will naturally grow as well.

The Discipline of Worship - Part 1

Psalm 95:6 "Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the the Lord our Maker."
It is really hard to adequately define what worship is, so I am going to give you Don Whitney's definition, "To worship God is to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy. As the Holy and Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the Sovereign Judge to whom we must give an account, He is worthy of all the worth and honor we can give Him and then infinitely more."
In order for us to be worshiping, we have to be focused on God, who He is and what He has done. Worship is how we respond to that knowledge. Worship is not about us.
Worship is to be done in spirit and in truth. There needs to be a balance of these two things. It cannot be just truth, where we are only focusing on facts about God and His works without any kind of heartfelt reaction about these 'facts.' It cannot be simply emotion directly vaguely towards that which is spiritual. Worship has to be a sincere reaction to our knowledge of who God is.
It is not always easy to worship God. We all have hard days and trials that make worshiping God. It is by remembering who God is and what He has done that we are able to worship during these hard times. Its easy to worship when life is good and things are going our way. We need to press on in worship even when times are hard.
Don't wait until you 'feel' like worshiping. If necessary, start by focusing on your Savior, Creator, Sustainer, and Father. Start by thinking about the works of God, what He has done in your life and the lives of those around you. Read the Old Testament and look for passages where God does tremendous and miraculous things to make His Name known. As you turn your mind towards the things of God, your heart will naturally follow.
Tomorrow we will discuss different opportunities for worship.

The Discipline of Service - Part 2

Yesterday we learned that service to others is expected of anyone calling themselves a Christian. We also discussed a few suggestions on how we can serve the people in our church body. But we are called to serve and love our neighbors, not just the church body.

Remember, ‘neighbors’ is referring to anyone we come into contact with. In the parable of the good Samaritan, which was given by Jesus to define ‘neighbor’, the Samaritan did not know the man he helped. He did not know him, did not know someone who knew him, and was not related in any way to him. Even more, the Samaritans and the Jews were known for hating each other! Therefore, we are to serve anyone we come into contact with.

This can be acted out in a myriad of ways. We don’t have the time or space to list them all here, but I will discuss a few ways I have found and you can use them as a sort of starting point for yourself.

• We need to serve our families. Sometimes the hardest people to serve are the ones we live with! Be it our brothers and sisters or our husbands and children, serving our family is not always easy. There always seems to be a fight over who gets to sit where, who gets to pick what channel to watch, whose turn it is to sit up front, who has to do the dishes, the list goes on and on! If we are actively trying to serve others, then we will be the ones to volunteer to do the dishes and we will be the one who says, “That’s okay, brother, you can have the remote.” When your sister comes home tired after a hard day at work, the serving sister will volunteer to clean the bathroom for her. When your husband isn’t feeling well, the serving wife will go out of her way to make him comfortable. Keep in mind, though, that we are serving others. It is easy to get caught up in serving someone the way we would want to be served and not the way that person wants to be served. Remember that the purpose of serving others is to benefit the person who is receiving your service and serve accordingly.
• We need to serve at our workplace. For those of us who work, this one is a hard one. This one is usually a little bit harder. This means that we are willing to do the jobs no one else wants to do. This means that we are kind even when we want to punch someone. This means that when everyone else is gossiping about the new person, we serve her by not participating, and even asking others to stop. This means being cheerful and helpful even when you are having a bad day. This means not backstabbing others to ‘climb the ladder.’ Serving others in our workplace is not always easy, but it is a great way to witness to our co-workers.
• We need to serve our friends. The key to serving anyone is by remembering that we are to treat others as we would want to be treated. Help your friends to submit to their husbands and fathers, don’t discourage or tease those who desire to be obedient. Always be looking for ways to be helpful, cheerful, and pleasant.

Finally, I would like to mention the six motivators that Donald Whitney gave in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritual Life. These are really helpful to keep in mind when we don’t feel like serving those around us!

• We should be motivated by obedience. God has commanded us to serve others and therefore we should serve others out of a desire to be obedient.
• We should be motivated by gratitude. When its hard to love others more than ourselves, consider the work that Jesus did on the cross for us. This is always an excellent way to be humbled and in a better position to serve.
• We should be motivated by gladness. We are not called simply to serve, but to serve with a joyful heart. Does your salvation and knowledge of the Lord give you joy? Use that joy to motivate you as you serve.
• We should be motivated by forgiveness rather than guilt. Don’t serve others in an attempt to make up for some past sin. Rather, serve others because your sins have been forgiven.
• We should be motivated by humility. This is probably my most-used motivator. Every time I am in a situation where I know I need to be serving someone but it is the last thing I want to do, I try to remind myself of who I was before Jesus saved me and who I am now because of that salvation. The humility that comes with that reminder is an excellent way to serve with joy. So often the biggest road block to service is our pride and if we can remember to fight that by teaching ourselves humility daily, service will become easier and easier.
• Finally, we should be motivated by love. As Christians, we have a love for Jesus and we are commanded to love others. Service is the means by which we show our love.

If you are a Christian then you are commanded to serve with gladness. We should actively be looking for ways that we can serve the people around us in an effort to obey God and show the love of Christ.

The Discipline of Service - Part 1

“Oh boy, today I get to serve people!” This is probably not a thought that most of us wake up with. In today’s society, serving people is looked down on. No one wants to do it. We enjoy being served, but not serving others. However, as always, the Lord expects differently from his followers.

If we call ourselves Christians then we should be actively looking for ways to serve others. Psalm 100:2 says “Serve the Lord with gladness!” and in Mark 23:31 we are reminded that the second greatest commandment (after loving God) is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, if we enjoy being served, we should make every effort to serve those around us. And even if we don’t enjoy being served, we are still called, not only to serve, but to serve with gladness.

There are two major ways that we can serve others. The first is by ministering at your church. Every week, the pastor serves his congregation by delivering a sermon. Every week the worship leader serves the congregation by leading music and the pianist/worship team/band serves by playing instruments. Not all of us, however, can be pastors or worship leaders or know how to play an instrument. This does not mean that we are exempt from the serving commandment. There are a myriad of ways the rest of us can serve the church body.

• Volunteer for nursery duty. No, it’s not always fun to miss church and work in a room full of kids. Some times it can be downright stressful. But this is a huge service to the moms and dads of these young people who are allowed to fellowship with (adult) believers and worship through singing and hearing the Word of God preached because of you. Be willing to miss church once every month or so and serve the parents of our next generation.
• Sign up for the cleaning crew! You wouldn’t believe how messy a church can get after a Sunday. Crumbs, candy wrappers, and bulletins will be scattered throughout the sanctuary and the lobby and sinks will have dirt smudges and toilet paper rolls will be empty. It’s not a fancy job and probably most people won’t know you are doing it, but it is an excellent (and always needed) way to serve the church.
• Work in the building ministry. We have a small group of guys at our church who are working to get projects done around our building. There are too many projects and not enough workers. Be willing to give up a Saturday morning once every few months and work to improve your church building.
• Finally, next time there is an announcement Sunday morning that a special service is needed, Jane just had surgery and her family will need some meals, Mark’s car broke down and he will need a ride to work the next couple of days while it is being fixed, Sara needs a babysitter, someone is needed to fill in here, a task needs done there, be the person to volunteer! Don’t just assume that someone will do it; actively pursue the opportunity to serve others!

This is not an exhaustive list of ways we can serve our church body, so feel free to look for other ways to serve. There is always plenty to go around and no one has an excuse not to serve.

Tomorrow, we will discuss how we can serve others outside the church body and what some motivators are to make this service easier and more enjoyable.

A Hunger for God…Through Fasting Part IV

In Matthew 6:16-18 we’re given more guidelines about how to fast: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth they have received their reward in full….And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”

Don’t look like you’re suffering. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t look like you’ve had a rough day. Give no reason to be asked why you look so bad. This is especially hard for me…I live in a perpetual state of tiredness. I look run down everyday. So looking better than I normally do would get people asking why I look so good…LOL!! Not really, but I do have to make an extra effort to look as normal as I otherwise would.

Keep it private. As in praying, we are called not to pray as to be seen so that others think highly of us. God sees the motives of your heart so beware when telling others about your fasting. Also, be reminded that fasting is not a sacrifice that earns us anything and/or worse, bends God’s Hand to do our will. John Wesley puts it this way: “The man who never fasts is no more in the way to heaven than the man who never prays.” However, there is plenty of support in the Bible for corporate and group fasting in Joel 2:15 it calls the people of Zion to gather together and “declare a holy fast…” When you’re married or live with others it will be very hard to keep that a secret, again it is your motive that makes it sinful…not that people find out.

There is a reward! It is just like giving; the more you give, with the right heart attitude, the more reward you store in heaven. John Piper says it better: “…He {God} rewards acts that confess human helplessness and that express hope in God, because these acts call attention to his glory.”

I sure pray that the Lord through the Holy Spirit has impressed upon your heart to seek Him in fasting, and that through fasting your heart will be revived as mine was. We also look forward to hearing from you and your testimonies of answered prayer and found joy in Christ.

“I am thirsty, but you are the Fountain of Life.

I am weak, but you are strong.

I am poor, but you are rich.

I am foolish, but you are wise.

I am broken, but you are whole.

I am dying, but your steadfast love is better than life,” (Psalm 63:3.)

A Hunger for God…Through Fasting Part III

Then HOW should you fast?

1) How long should you fast? God didn’t ordain the length of time we should fast. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist denomination, fasted every Wednesday and Friday and required all of his clergy to do the same. So whether the Holy Spirits leads you to fast for only one meal or forty days, the important thing is that your heart is driven by a godly purpose.

What type of fast you should do? Knowing how long you’ll fast, will help you determine what type of fast you may want to do. I could spend another day or two just talking about types of fasts. But for the sake of time and attention span…I’m just going to mention the most commonly known (among people I know) “normal fast” which is abstaining from all food, but not from water. Just remember the point IS to get hungry!

2) How to fast safely? You need to consider your health. If you’re pregnant, diabetic, or have any other chronic health problem this is not for you. When doing a rather lengthy fast I would recommend to consult with your doctor first.

3) How do you prepare? Plan, Plan, and Plan. Without planning to do it in the first place—it will not happen.

a. Have an eternal perspective. Without an eternal perspective it will be near impossible to endure the hunger and you will be tempted to give up at the first sight of hunger.

b. Plan what and who you’ll pray for. When I go in “hunger mode” I don’t have to search the files in my head as to what or who to pray for. I’ve gone from “I’m really hungry…oh yeah, I’m suppose to be praying” to “Lord, thank you for reminding me to pray for…”

c. Wean yourself. Resist the urge to pig out on your last meal. I start by not having anything to eat or drink the night before I fast. Waking up hungry allows me to hit the floor running, so to speak, no time to think, no turning back.

4) How do you explain to friends and love ones? My mind goes specifically to people working outside the home and I can suggest you simply saying “I have other plans for lunch today.” Of course, plan ahead and if you expect to be going out to lunch with co-workers, vendors, etc. just do it on a day that there will be less explaining to do. For Christian friends, we should just be able to answer with a simple “I’m fasting today.” My husband is learning not to ask anymore why I’m not eating…what he doesn’t know is that sometimes I don’t have what they’re having simply because I don’t like it…

Please join me tomorrow as I wrap this up.

A Hunger for God…Through Fasting Part II

Why should we fast?

Dr. Whitney gives these reasons (and more in his book) as to why to fast:

1) It is ordained by God. In Matthew 6:16-17 it says: “And when you fast…But when you fast…” By giving us instruction on what to do and what not to do when we fast, Jesus assumes that we will fast.
2) To humble oneself before God. In Psalm 35:13; Ezra 8:21 “I humble myself through fasting”.
3) To strengthen our prayer. Nehemiah (in 1:4) “fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”
4) To seek God’s Guidance. In Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted before appointing elders in the churches they founded.
5) To express grief. After King Saul’s burial in 1 Sam 31:13 it says that they the men of Jabesh Gilead mourned and “fasted for seven days.”
6) To seek deliverance or protection. Queen Esther (in 4:16) said “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me.”
7) To overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God. In Matthew 4:1-11 we’re told Jesus fasted for “forty days and forty nights”. He knew how Satan was going to tempt him and that’s how he prepared himself for the temptations to come.

Could you find any reason to fast?

As I mentioned before, my main reason for fasting was prayer. But with more reasons to fast, I have found myself increasing the number of days I fast per week - I’m hooked! While fasting, everything is magnified, becomes urgent, and captures my senses. My dull and boring prayers are suddenly revived with a great sense of love and care for the lost and God’s people. Overall, my sense of expectation and hope has been renewed through fasting. There has been a trickled down affect into other areas of disciplines like reading my Bible consistently and meditating on the Word.


Please join me Thursday as we tackle HOW to fast.

Hunger for God - Through Fasting

There’s been a revival in my spiritual life through fasting. Before, I’d been at best on “survival mode,” practicing here and there the spiritual disciplines of the faith. With the exhausting task of raising four little boys, the distractions and lack of energy left very little time for God. At best, I’d prayed and read my bible out of duty rather than obedience and faith. Sadly, I had lost my first love in Christ.

However, early this year I read a post on fasting that caught my attention immediately when it said “my hunger reminds me to pray…” I thought about this a lot and I concluded that if I had to starve myself to pray then that’s what I needed to do. Previously, fasting had been out of the question for I had been pregnant for a few years in a row and the rest of the time I was just trying to keep it together. As I watched parents struggling to influence their children to fear God and obey Him, I realized more and more that I needed to pray, and to pray with urgency as if my kids were going astray now. But I couldn’t fabricate those prayers; the need in my heart to pray that way just wasn’t there.

I knew fasting was to be done for spiritual reasons and reasons I had: The salvation of my children and others, and that really got me exited. I began to fast with what little I knew. But as time went on I had a sneaky suspicion that I needed to know more about it for I began to have all kinds of questions. One of them being; what was fasting in the first place? So I pulled out Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney and there it was plain and simple:

“…is a Christian’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. It is Christian, for fasting by a non-Christian obtains no eternal value because the Discipline’s motives and purposes are to be God-centered. It is voluntary in that fasting is not to be coerced. Fasting is more than just the ultimate crash diet for the body; it is abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.”


Though I still have three kids in diapers fasting has enable me to attend to their needs while meditating, praying, and interceding for others in prayer. Hunger has caused me to get in tune with the Holy Spirit, if you will, and thus grow me spiritually.

Please join me tomorrow as we learn more about WHY we should fast.

Plan to Pray

Before we get started on the method, I think we need to remember the heart of the matter. We can practice the discipline of prayer and never be conformed to the image of Jesus, which is our desire, if we merely pray for the sake of praying. We must examine what drives us to our knees. Are we coming to God because we need Him, desire Him, love Him, and fear Him? Do we pray because we pant for Him as a deer pants for streams of water? Or, are we hypocrites who pray to be heard and admired by others, as those trying to earn some sort of "in" with God? I know I am constantly examining if I have a heart for God in prayer so that my prayers are not ineffective cold mantras.

The heart matters, but having a plan or method helps in matters of the heart. Don Whitney said that sometimes our prayer life is hindered because our prayers get boring. "We pray the same old thing about the same old thing". So what method or plan does Don Whitney recommend to give our prayer life....life? What is the method that I have so benefited from? ..... Pray through Scripture! Pray God's word back to Him. He recommended starting with the Psalms. I can pray for myself, family, friends, finances, work, and church using God's Word. There are 150 Psalms and I have yet to pray through all of them. I have found my heart filled with praise and actually good words to speak it using what God inspired the psalmists to say about Him already. And I know that it is in line with the true character of God because it is God's word about Himself. I have experienced and heard from others how one line from a Psalm has inspired at times 30 minutes of prayer and there was no notice of time passing, so I have really found it helpful to start my day out looking at a Psalm and starting to pray through it. Even if I do not get to the rest of my Bible reading until later, this has been a sweet nourishment for my soul as I start my morning out reading and praying through a Psalm like this: Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your loving-kindnesses, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your loving-kindness remember me, for Your goodness' sake, O Lord.( Ps. 25:6-7) Bible reading, meditation, and prayer are taking place all at the same time! I love to pray through the book of Titus. Titus 2:3-5 is a favorite of mine for praying for myself and other women. Titus1 is great for praying for my elders. And who doesn't want to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age?( Titus2:12) Outside of the Psalms, this is the most prayed through book in the Bible for me. This book is short, simple, to the point and jammed full of practical stuff! Can you tell I love this book? I'm a simple person, what can I say. It is very helpful and dare I say necessary to pray with the Word of God in hand. John Piper said: "In the Bible, God speaks to us, and in prayer, we speak to him. And the two are interdependent in their effectiveness. The Scripture teaches us to pray and shows us what to pray and how to pray and tells us the basis for prayer and fills us with encouragement that God hears our prayers. And prayer applies the Scriptures to ourselves and others. It turns the word into prayer, and it pleads for help from God in understanding the meaning of the word and living the word. So prayer and the word are interdependent in the way they help us be conformed to the image of Christ." I believe this wholeheartedly!

I would add that I find it very helpful to journal at the same time. The best suggestion I have in order to keep the discipline of journaling consistent is to keep your journal with your Bible and write in conjunction with your Bible reading and prayer time. If you use your computer for journaling, keep your Bible by the computer. Frankly, many of the things that show up in my blogs are from my journals.

If you have read any of these blogs on prayer you have simply been given a glimpse of the meditations of my heart. You have come along with me as I have struggled through why I do not pray as I ought. I have found writing out these things absolutely necessary for my heart and mind to process these things. So, for me, reading, meditation, prayer and journaling are all very intricately connected. What I read, write, and think about set the tone of how I react and pray throughout the day, as I teach my children, fold the laundry, sweep my floors, talk on the phone and write my emails.

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (2 Thess.5:16-18)

The Heart of Prayer: Awe

Psalm 47:1-2 “O clap your hands, all peoples; shout to God with the voice of joy. For the Lord Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth.”

Am I in awe of the Most High God? As I look at His handiwork and behold His goodness in my life and the lives of those around me, am I shaken to the core and do I tremble at the God who is the Maker of heaven and earth and the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills?

Prayer is for those who are utterly dependent on God, those who look to God in humble expectancy, and those who fear Him - are in awe of Him.

Am I given to praise the way the Psalmist is given to praise in Psalm 66? Shout joyfully to God all the earth; sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God, "How awesome are your works! Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You. All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name."
Come see the works of God, Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men (vs. 1-5).

Am I so in awe of this God that I desire to tell of his great works and hear others tell of His wonders? Psalm 66:16, “Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul.”

I have to ask myself these questions if I am not given to praying with a heart filled with praise and thanksgiving. We are called to fear God. He is able to cast the soul into hell and He able to save us and cause us to enter into His eternal joy and experience His eternal pleasures. The fear and awe we are called to have should drive us to God - not away from Him. If we live an awe-filled life we will live a life of prayer. We will be driven to Him. As we pray in humble expectation, we will be struck with holy fear as we see how He displays His great power, compassion, wrath, faithfulness, and we will be filled with a sense of awe. This sweet communion with God as I pour my heart out to Him, helps me to consider the character of God and the works of God like Pastor Matt recently exhorted us to do. And if I am considering God and His works, I am spurred on to stand in awe of Him. The more I pray in accordance with who He is, as found in His word the more I find God to be what Jonathan Edwards once said about who God is to His people: God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. This God is surely to be adored and feared.

In the early church it says in Acts 2:43, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe (fear); and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” I want to be in a consistent state of awe. I think watching God work in the humble, expectant prayers of His people can provoke that in our hearts.

Come and behold the works of the Lord, Who wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:8-10)

If humility, expectation and awe drive a person to pray, will prayer just happen? Or, is it truly a discipline? Do we need a plan to pray, dare I say a method? Does it take practice?

Tomorrow we will Plan to Pray.

The Heart of Prayer - Expectation

In humility do I really expect/believe that God will act. Am I praying and eagerly anticipating God to do what He says He will do? Do I see God as big? As good? As the life giver/changer? Can I say with the Psalmist: For I hope in You , O LORD; You will answer, O LORD my God.( Psalm 38:15)

Often I do not live a life of persistent prayer, because I don't expect God to hear me and answer me when I pray; or I pray with the wrong motives. ( James 4:3 ) Which that brings me right back to pride. I do not think God answers me unless things go my own way according to my own plan. See the focus? It is on me, rather than on God. A heart filled with expectation is looking for God to act in a way that will fully demonstrate His precious glory. A heart of expectation will be looking for God to act in such way as to reveal a little more of His character to me and those around me, as well as reveal a little more of my complete dependence upon Him.

I need to see myself as a child coming before a loving, faithful and extravagantly generous father. Matthew 7:7-11 says: Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, how will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! A person filled with faith or as I have been saying it, expectation, will pray, pray, pray, because they believe God is good, he hears, and He answers. We come to God empty handed humbly and joyfully expecting to be filled.

One way I find help in cultivating a heart of expectation, is to journal. I know it is not directly commanded in the Bible to journal, but if you think about the way we have benefited from the lives of saints from the past, you will see we have learned of how God was moving and working in them, through them, and all around them, through their journals. For me, when I journal as I am reading my Bible and praying, my thoughts and applications of what God is teaching me is reiterated or made clearer to me. I am also able to look back and see how God has answered prayers I have prayed and how he answered the many requests that I have written down. So, when I am discouraged and feel like God is not listening and my faith begins to falter, I can look back and see how He has heard and answered in the past. For me this cultivates an anticipation of what God might do in the future, and it keeps me persistent.

I have 4 siblings that are not in Christ. In my feeble, proud, and small faithed mind, there are times I do not think that praying for their salvation will do anything. Then I look at how God has worked and moved in those around me and even in my family and recognize that I am benefiting from being in communion with God, and how He is constantly reminding me that it is He who saves and Him alone, so what else can I do?

Even now I look back on things I had written when Si was in the hospital and how God moved His saints to pray even when most people did not know that my little boy was getting surgery at the very moment in the middle of the night that they were moved to pray for him. James 5:16 says: Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. When I start to forget this, I look back and go, wait a minute girl, get a grip, of course prayer is effective, because God says so, and you have seen it!

So, I am going to keep eagerly anticipating God to work through the prayers of His people. I am going to choose to believe that God delights to hear His children cry out to Him. He calls us to a life of prayer, so we need to get busy falling on our knees and expecting great things. I don't know about you, but I want to see God do things that boggle my mind, I want to see Him do abundantly beyond all I can ask or think.

Pray and expect to be wowed! Pray and expect to be able to say with the Psalmist: How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which you have done, and Your thoughts toward us, there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count. ( Psalm 40:4-5 )

The Spiritual Discipline of Prayer: The Heart of Prayer - Humility

As followers of Jesus we know we must pray. Jesus prayed, His disciples prayed, and we are commanded to pray: And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kind of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18

Prayer is a means by which we commune with our great God and Savior. It is an avenue by which we get to experience and delight ourselves in Him. There are promises attached to prayer such as in Philippians 4:6-7. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Prayer is a means that God uses to fight against an anxious heart. I don't know about you, but when I find myself becoming anxious about life and the things that go on around me, I have to remember that God has given me the tools I need to battle it and have the peace of God settle my heart and keep me focused on Christ. Sounds great! Sounds like something I need to be busy about doing.

So, I ask myself, why do I struggle to have a constant attitude of prayer? I think the number one hindrance to a life of unceasing prayer flowing from a heart of thanksgiving is PRIDE. Stuart Scott defines pride this way: Pride is the mindset of self (a master's mindset rather than that of a servant): a focus on self and the service of self, a pursuit of self-recognition and self exaltation, and a desire to control and use all things for self. Pretty nasty stuff. Pride is guaranteed to ultimately lead us to our destruction according to the Bible. ( 1 Peter 5:5) Proud people are not praying people. Proud people think that their problems are too big for God. Proud people think they can endure and handle things on their own. If I want to know if I am proud, I evaluate the way and how often I pray. The prayers of the proud are few and far between or self-focused; they are all about being seen by family, friends, and society as godly, righteous, a fantastic prayer, a good man/woman. The proud will pray so as to say, “Be like me, look at me, I am great.” Or pride will say, “God is obligated to me because of my great theologically sound prayers.”

Another way to evaluate whether or not pride is hindering your prayer life is to take note of how often you compare yourself favorably to others. Remember, God is not impressed with you because of your knowledge and wordiness so do not deceive yourself into thinking you are impressing Him and obligating Him with your prayers. He certainly wasn't impressed by the hypocrites in Matthew 6:5-8.

If pride is the hindrance then humility is the remedy. Humility is a complete and utter dependence on God. A life of prayer is a manifestation of that complete and utter dependence. We pray when we see God as the only source of strength, hope, compassion, and provision for all things. If we see ourselves as among the weak and foolish, nothing can keep us from dropping to our knees. We will pray for our children because it isn't our awesome parenting skills that will save them, it is Jesus! We will be driven to our knees for our brother's and sister's in Christ because we are not great counselors, disciplers and friends, rather Jesus is. We will wake up in an attitude of prayer because we acknowledge our very breath is held in His hands. We pray so as to stand against sin because we know how sneaky our own flesh is and have no confidence in ourselves to conquer it. We pray because we cannot help but breathe out praise to the One who is awesome in His Compassion, Love and Power.

So how do we fight the pride and become more humble? Prayer is the answer. God humbles us to see pride as sin against Him and we are moved to pray, but not yet as we ought! In faith, we must continue to come before Him humbly seeking the grace that only He can give. It is a discipline we must practice in faith knowing that God will move and work in our hearts, giving us more grace to slay the pride enabling us to pray more. Prayer then is not only a sign of the humble but also a means to humility. Be eager to pray so that you can see God work. Pray in humble expectation. That is where I'll pick up tomorrow... The Heart of Prayer - Expectation. Do you truly believe God will hear you, answer you, and work in you as you pray?

In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch. Psalm 5:3

Spiritual Disciplines: bible intake and meditation… day 4

I will finish up with a testimony.

I have been saved for approximately 12 years now and probably since day 1 (of salvation) I have always decided that I was going to read my bible every day and finish the bible in one year... And each year I would look back with intense disappointment and see that I had not been faithful in reading my bible each day and had long since given up trying to get through the bible in a year. So then come January, I would renew my pledge and start over only to fail again. 2 ½ years ago I again started out my January with my yearly pledge to read my bible daily and get through the bible in a year. Something was different that year though... (Of course I didn't know it until December). Each day I would read God's word and try to journal something about what I read. I found it easier to meditate upon God's word and found that it was becoming more of a natural part of my life to read God's word daily. I would pray more and my thoughts were more focused on the Lord. Did I stop sinning? Clearly not. However, I do find my thoughts more captivated with the glories of Christ. I do find it easier to be gracious to others and to be encouraging. I find my heart filled in silent song to God and musings about Him more often. I think much deeper on the things of God and I am lead by His word and Spirit more... If nothing else I am certainly convicted of sin more often. (The Holy Spirit is using that ammunition to fight sin within me!) God is faithful to His promises and He promises that His word will not return void, but it will accomplish the purpose for which He intends it (Isaiah 55:11). And if we are His children, we know that His will for us is our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

In my opinion, I have grown more spiritually over these last 2 ½ years of consistently practicing the spiritual disciplines (especially the reading/meditation of God's word with prayer) than I have over the previous 10 years in the Lord. I have found my faith strengthened... (Go figure… for faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17) and I have found obedience to Him easier, especially when I can sit down and read God's word while pondering a decision of how to respond to a situation. So I know by faith in God as well as by personal experience that His word is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword... it is able to do the work of cutting away the really sneaky sin that is hidden deep down inside of me... for the purpose of making me more like God... so that I will grow more in loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength... because He loves Himself like that!

So this begs the question: why don't more people persevere in pursuing a love for God through His ordained means, the spiritual disciplines (which will bring us into the obedience and joy which we so long for)? I think that partly, I was just too lazy for 10 years...it was dull work going through Leviticus to this new believer... (shame on me) and I was short sighted, not seeing God in all of His word (but rather only where it was easy to see Him). However, I think I was also so busy trying to put out "fires" of sin in my own life that I didn't recognize that the long term solution to all the fires was a lifelong plan of pursuing God daily in His word. I didn’t see that the living water of God's word studied in faith consistently, would start to extinguish the flames of the sin that was burning in my life. Ultimately, I will look back on those times and say God is good, and He is still at work in my life. But I praise His name that He has given such simple ways to pursue love for Him... ways that even I can understand. (I think).

I hope this has not been too confusing or exhausting... May we all be encouraged to chase hard after a greater love for God, expecting with all hope that He will bless us and fill us with love for Him and joy in Him... if we come to Him through Christ who is the living word of God as revealed to us in the Holy bible by the Holy Spirit.

Here too, are some helpful hints that Jasmine found from John Piper:

Dr. Piper says: "Many good things do not happen in our lives for the simple lack of planning.... Most Christians neglect their Bibles not out of conscious disloyalty to Jesus, but because of failure to plan a time and place and method to read it"

Regarding time: "I earnestly recommend that it be in the early morning, unless there are some extenuating circumstances. Entering the day without a serious meeting with God, over his Word and in prayer, is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons. It’s like taking a trip without filling the tires with air or the tank with gas. The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep. The body does, but not the heart. The spiritual air leaks from our tires, and the gas is consumed in the day. We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of God and prayer."

Regarding place: "Pick a place of seclusion…. It needs to be secluded so that you are not distracted, and so that you can speak out loud and sing and cry. If your family situation or home does not have such a place, then create it, not by space, but by rule.... One saintly mother with a large brood of children would use her apron to make a tent for her head and her Bible at the kitchen table and the children were taught, when mother is in her tent, make no noise."

Regarding method: "There are many ways to read the Bible. Any is better than none. Coming to the appointed place and time with no plan for how to read the Bible usually results in a hit-and-miss approach that leave you feeling weak, unreal, and discouraged. For many years I have read through the Bible once each year following 'The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan'.... The design is to read daily from two Old Testament and two New Testament books. I find this variety helpful. Others don’t, and would rather use some other approach. That’s fine."

Finally, I would highly recommend that you get a copy of Donald Whitney's book "Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life". God has used this mightily in the lives of many believers. May you all be blessed and may your love for God greatly increase as you pursue Him through the spiritual disciplines!

Here is a link to Donald Whitney's website: http://www.spiritualdisciplines.org/

Spiritual Disciplines: bible intake and meditation … day 3

Let's resume our talk on bible reading and meditation with some more practical application.

I don’t want to steal Jasmine’s thunder as she will be writing about prayer and journaling, but I will say a few quick things. Before you open your bible to read, quiet your mind and heart before God. Ask Him to help you to know Him and love Him and see Him and His works as you read His word. Ask Him to convict you of sin against Him and others and to humble you before Him. Keep those things in mind as you read. Set aside your own agenda and really dig in to what God has to say to you in His word. Ask Him to help you see real ways to apply His word to your life. Carolyn Mahaney (see our link to "Girl Talk" in the sidebar) recommended in her book "Shopping for Time" that you ask two questions as you read your bible. One: Who is God (as revealed in the passage) and two: What should my response be to God as He is revealed in the passage? I really like these types of questions because they help me to direct my thoughts to God in worship and submission, as well as giving me wonderful things to meditate on throughout my day. Notice that second question is self-examining… not other person examining. Don’t read God’s word to try and fix someone else or make them more godly, without humbling yourself under God’s mighty hand and His sword of truth, first.

Another thing that I have found helpful is if I purpose to talk to somebody about what I read and am trying to meditate on from God’s word. Usually my boys are the “lucky” recipients of this. They are on the same reading schedule as I am and so this helps me to hold them accountable as well. But it also helps me to articulate my thoughts when I have to verbalize them in a comprehendible way to them. Plus, because they are still young (9, 11, and 13) it helps me to take a big idea and bring it to their level of understanding. This helps me to know and understand God more, in that He does the same thing for us.

Also, I find that it is easier to meditate on God’s word when I limit the distractions around me. I don’t have the TV on or a lot of background noise during most of the day so that I can focus my thoughts on God and what He would have me pursue each moment. (I hope this helps my boys similarly). Also I don’t spend a lot of time talking just for the sake of chatter. I do happen to home school my boys and though we have a lot of fun, we don’t sit around idly chatting on most days. We may have an exciting conversation about the goodness of God in giving us Jesus or we can have a serious talk about our sinfulness, but I try to be purposeful about directing my mind toward things of God whenever I can. When I am working in my kitchen or in my house or driving in my car, I can think about Jesus. Sometimes I will listen to good Christian music and that will spur on further meditation, however that is not a substitute for quiet focused meditation on God’s word.

We will finish up our focus on bible intake/reading and meditation tomorrow, so "stay tuned"!

Spiritual Disciplines: bible reading and meditation… day 2

So how does this work in real life? Am I to get out my spiritual disciplines book, make a list of the various disciplines and start doing them? Well no... And yes. I am to pursue a love for God through the spiritual disciplines... I am to pray to Him and plead with Him to fill my cold heart with greater love for Him. I am to pray that as I open my bible to read it, that my soul will be fed the living water and bread of life which is Christ who is the word become flesh. I am to meditate (think deeply) throughout the day on the holy words of God which I have tasted during my bible time... I am to memorize God's word out of a desire to fill my mind with good things of God (and ammunition for the Holy Spirit to use in the fight against sin). And so on the list goes... but it is not merely a list ... it is a faith filled decision to step into the place where God has promised He will do a good work in our hearts, for His glory, in His perfect time.

So it's not that the list of spiritual "to-do's" is bad, no rather it is good... IF... it is coming from a heart of faith that desperately wants to love God more and as such it comes to God seeking HIS means of pouring that love into us. “For without faith it is impossible to please God,” Hebrews 11:6.

Let’s discuss bible intake and meditation. These go hand in hand. Bible reading is like eating God’s food and meditation is like digesting it. Through meditation the Holy Spirit takes God’s word and uses the “nutrients” to feed your soul and cause spiritual growth. Obviously there are other factors that God uses to cause spiritual growth, such as trials, but those interact with God’s word within us as digested by the Holy Spirit through meditation to produce the growth that God designs for us. Picture a person who exercises to be strong and healthy. If they don’t eat properly, they don’t physically prosper. If they do eat properly, but their body won’t digest the food and use the nutrients to benefit their body, then they still will not prosper. In fact, under those circumstances their body will actually be harmed by the added strain of the exercise. Similarly, we must be eating God’s word daily and then digesting it through meditation upon it, so that we may grow in respect to godliness. We can be sure that when we ingest and digest God’s word by faith motivated by desiring greater love for God, the Holy Spirit will do His part in bringing forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness within us. As we grow in love for God, our whole lives will reflect it and we will be following in the footsteps of Jesus. As such our joy will be made full! These are awesome benefits!

So how do we get started? First things first, this is a lifelong discipline so think of it as such. Some people decide to start reading the bible daily so they get a “read the bible in a year plan” and start off strong. However when they fall behind, they get discouraged and give up due to a hopeless feeling of “I’ll never be able to finish the bible this year because I’m so far behind.” Then they end up reading hardly ever! I would recommend that you seek to read the bible over the course of the year; however, I would not recommend getting so caught up in the one year schedule that when you fall behind, you give up. Rather, keep in mind that you are developing a lifelong daily delight (a sanctified habit) and you are reading God’s word for the purpose of knowing and loving Him better. This way you can be free to joyfully, though purposefully, pursue God by reading through His word at a pace that best fits you. Donald Whitney scandalously encouraged believers (at a spiritual disciplines conference held annually at our church) to meditate more on God’s word even if it meant that they had to read less of it during their bible reading time. This is so true! If we are desiring to really be changed by God’s word then we must meditate upon it, and if in order to fit it all into our hectic lives we must only read one chapter a day (instead of the 3-4 chapters daily required to make it through the bible in a year)… then do it. But keep at it. Don’t give up. Each day go before God and read His word (that’s Him speaking to you telling you what’s important) then listen to Him and think about it deeply (that’s meditation). In Joshua 1:8 it says: “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” Also in Psalm 119: 11, 15-16 it says: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You… I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.” So set aside time each day to read God’s word and then meditate on what you’ve read.

Thursday I will offer up some more nitty-gritty application type of thoughts regarding bible intake and meditation.

Spiritual Disciplines Marathon !

Hello all! For the next 3 weeks we will be doing a series on the Spiritual Disciplines. I am going to start us off. First, let’s look at the heart of the matter (from my perspective).

A while back, Pastor Matt was preaching in the morning service and he defined sin as not loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (my own paraphrase). I really appreciated this particular definition because it captured the heart attitude behind our actions. By that I mean that my flesh is so sneaky and utterly sinful and deceitful, that I can justify my actions as not sinful (oftentimes) because "technically" I was not disobeying a direct command of God's word. However, when seen in light of this definition, I sin ALOT more than I would own up to. So... my mind went from there to meditate on the opposite of sin: godliness... (my own antonym).

Now I looked at godliness from two ways... one: I pondered godliness as "being like God"... but like God in what particular quality? My thoughts went back to the definition of sin and to God’s first and foremost commandment to us... and decided that the pre-eminent quality of God which I need to "be like" is (as John Piper says) God's supreme satisfaction (love) of/in Himself. In other words, to be like God I must love Him first and foremost. And then two: I also looked at godliness from the simple aspect of it being the opposite of sin (note the definition of sin in the first paragraph). By implication, the definition of godliness would then be “love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength". So the two ways that I was pondering godliness have coincided so far... both ending up with my needing to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength for me to be godly.

Later in the evening service Matt was preaching out of Psalm 27 "4 Crucial Keys to Overcoming Fear.” His second point was: be passionate about your pursuit of God. This got me wondering. How do I pursue God passionately? What about when I don't feel very loving toward God but rather cold or just methodical? Can I pursue Him then? Into my head pops the scripture verse "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness…” 1 Timothy 4:7. Wait a minute... discipline myself for the purpose of loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? Discipline... that takes daily deciding to do what does not come naturally to me... but which will apparently make me love God? I desire to love God more... In fact the reason this line of thought caught my mind is because I find myself living life by a check list.... such as: read bible, clean dishes, make dinner, be submissive, correct math sheets, etc. And only too often do I look back on my day and see a lot of things done, but not much passion for God and not nearly enough enthusiasm and love warming my heart and drawing me closer to Him. I want to be passionate for God but something is lacking.

Well, then my thoughts went to something I have heard Pastor Rick (my-brother–in-law) say many times ... (my own paraphrase) " The spiritual disciplines are a God ordained channel that we (believers) put ourselves in whereby God will meet us and bless us and draw us closer unto Him. He will use the spiritual disciplines to grow us into the image of Christ as we submit ourselves to His word and the Holy Spirit”. So then God wants us to be like Him... (Loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, strength, etc) and He has ordained that the means to pursuing that love for Him is through the spiritual disciplines. So ... I want to love God more. God must produce this lasting love in me through Christ / the Holy Spirit within me... but I am not called to sit on my laurels and wait twiddling my thumbs for God to pump me full of this love for Him... (For God's word says, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is at work within you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 paraphrased). I am called to pursue, yes, even chase after a heart/mind that loves God more. How do I pursue that which is so intangible though?

Well, God is so gracious and kind that He has made it so that a child believer can even pursue this love for Him. He has given us "the spiritual disciplines" as revealed to us in His word... (That being one of the primary disciplines... intake of God's word). I will be discussing this important spiritual discipline as well as its counterpart: meditation, today and for the next three days.