A return to Disciplines
“It’s difficult for me to have disciplined, consistent time with God because…”
well…to be honest…I haven’t put forth the effort recently. I’ve allowed myself to act like I need to isolate myself from everything in order to have a consistent time. I don’t really believe it’s necessary to do that. In fact, I think pursuing God should be quite the opposite. I like the way Richard J. Foster explains it in the very first page of Celebration of Discipline:
“God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings: people who have jobs, who care for children, who wash dishes and mow lawns. In fact, the Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our relationships with our husband or wife, our brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors.”
Page 1 (emphasis mine)
I’m not sure if it was laziness or spiritual forgetfulness or what got me out of the habit of practicing the Disciplines in my every day life, but I got out of the habit. There are excuses I could use if I wanted to: my audio Bible app became unreliable, I had trouble keeping the Anakin Redeemed blog updated while I was reading and studying, or a myriad of other excuses. And that’s what they are. Excuses.
Honestly? I don’t have any excuses.
I know that I can be pretty good at faking the spiritual life for a little while. I’ve been to church camps. I’ve been in seminary. I’ve been in groups full of church leaders. I’ve learned how to talk a good game if I want to. But one can only pretend for a while. Eventually, your true self – the one who is trying to do everything on his own – starts to show through.
“Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin”
– Celebration of Discipline, page 5
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think I’ve really been faking it. I haven’t been living some false life. But I’m also sure that I haven’t actually been living out my faith the way I should, either. I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by so many other thing that I’ve allowed my relationship with my First Love to suffer.
It’s time to fix that.
It’s time to put Jesus back on the throne of my life. It’s time to discover where God is moving and put myself in His path. Because an encounter with the Living God changes you. It’s time to start practicing the Disciplines again because “the Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us” (Celebration of Discipline, page 7).
“Our world is hungering for genuinely changed people.”
– Celebration of Discipline, page 11
I’m hungry to be one of those genuinely changed people. Care to join me? What’s stopping you?
Let’s stop making excuses. Let’s start making the time.
Note: This post was written in response to this “Complete this sentence…” writing prompt. Prompt #2 will be published tomorrow (with a brief explanation of how the schedule got out of whack). If you have a response to the question, “It’s difficult for me to have disciplined, consistent time with God because…” then you’re welcome to share it. Please send your response to me via email.
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Fantastic post with a real call to action. I must admit that I always make excuses when it comes to why I haven’t made time for God…and that’s terrible as He’s given so much of His for me.
Was it C.S.Lewis who said that he always went to bed early saying that he had to get up in the morning for an appointment with God? That was his quiet time. Sounds like a good discipline!
God bless, Paul
God bless you, too, Paul! Stay on the straight and narrow.