Yesterday we learned from Paul that while we need to take care of ourselves, physical discipline, spiritual discipline is much more important.
So, what is spiritual discipline? The answer will depend a great deal on who you ask. Since this is my blog, you will get my answer. My wife and I were on the staff of the Navigators for about 10 years. We served in the collegiate ministry. Much of my view of spiritual disciplines comes from our experience with the Navs from being involved in the ministry before we were on staff, and as leading ministries as staff.
The founder of the Navs, Dawson Trotman, developed over the years an illustration that helped him communicate what it meant to be spiritually disciplined. Its last form was the Wheel.
Christ is the center and the four spokes are areas of discipline. The rim speaks to the need of believers to obey the Lord.
Space in one blog post doesn’t allow covering all the spokes. In John 8:31 – 32 (here @ Bible Gateway) Jesus tells us that if we are going to be His disciples we must abide in His Word. So, we will start there.
To abide in the Word means simply to live in it. Practically, that suggest that we are in an intentional habit of daily engaging in the Word of God. There are several different ways to do so. Some are:
Another may be to hear. I omitted that one from the list because in my experience those who are believers don’t have much of a problem hearing the Word and frankly it is the least effective way to engage.
This intro has gotten longer than I anticipated. I will extend this to tomorrow’s post and focus on Quiet Time or Devotional then.
If you have a moment, reply and tell me what you are doing in your Quiet Times.
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| The Wheel Illustration |
The founder of the Navs, Dawson Trotman, developed over the years an illustration that helped him communicate what it meant to be spiritually disciplined. Its last form was the Wheel.
Christ is the center and the four spokes are areas of discipline. The rim speaks to the need of believers to obey the Lord.
Space in one blog post doesn’t allow covering all the spokes. In John 8:31 – 32 (here @ Bible Gateway) Jesus tells us that if we are going to be His disciples we must abide in His Word. So, we will start there.
To abide in the Word means simply to live in it. Practically, that suggest that we are in an intentional habit of daily engaging in the Word of God. There are several different ways to do so. Some are:
- Quiet Time or Devotional
- Reading
- Study
- Memorization
- Meditation
Another may be to hear. I omitted that one from the list because in my experience those who are believers don’t have much of a problem hearing the Word and frankly it is the least effective way to engage.
This intro has gotten longer than I anticipated. I will extend this to tomorrow’s post and focus on Quiet Time or Devotional then.
If you have a moment, reply and tell me what you are doing in your Quiet Times.
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