Spiritual Growth – Page 180 – REACHING HURTING WOMEN MINISTRIES

Whether college students or students of life, when trying to learn something new we need the discipline of study. It’s the same when it comes to our personal spiritual growth. Let’s look at how we can become better students of and for God.

Our goal of integrating the Spiritual Disciplines into our lives is to transform our total person, to re-place old destructive thoughts and habits with new life-giving ones. Today we’ll learn four steps that will help us make the most of our valuable study time. But first let’s look at our definitions for this week:

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES: habits that nurture spiritual growth; exercises unto godliness.

STUDY: application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge.

The Bible tells us that we are transformed through the renewal of our mind. And our mind becomes renewed as we apply the things we’ve learned in new habits. Some of us have naturally good study habits but many of us need help in this area.

Here are four steps that I learned from Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline:

- REPETITION ~ channels our mind in a specific direction by ingraining thoughts. Whether rereading, re-writing or reciting material aloud, repetition always works for me.

- CONCENTRATION ~ our brain’s natural ability is enhanced by centering our energies on our subject of study. Remove distractions and find a quiet place where you can focus. Again key for me.

- COMPREHENSION ~ understanding what we are studying is not always an easy task, but when we put the previous steps to work, comprehension is more achievable. Before we know it we have that light-bulb moment!

- REFLECTION ~ once we have defined our subject through comprehension we are ready to bring significance to what we have learned. With reflection we can now apply what we have learned to our life.

Whether listening to audio books, studying nature on a daily walk, or doing an intense scripture study, there are many ways we can become attune to the message of God’s love in our lives.

One of the most important things I’ve learned from Richard Foster these last several years is don’t get stuck reading only current books or publications. By alternating classic Christian literature into my reading, more depth has come into my spiritual learning experience. Now the classics are my preference.

If you are unfamiliar with Christian classics, I encourage you to check out Spiritual Classics by Richard Foster. This excellent book contains excerpts from many of the greatest books ever written. It’s designed like a devotional or can be used as a small group study.

Whatever your do turn off the TV, put down the smart phone and pick up a good book. You won’t be sorry!

What’s your favorite Christian classic book?

RESOURCES:

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

STEP FOUR: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Let us examine our ways, test them, and return to the Lord. ~ Lamentations 3:40

PRINCIPLE FOUR of Celebrate Recovery: Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God and to someone I trust.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. ~ Matthew 5:8

Step Four begins the growth steps of our recovery journey. We are now ready to come clean, to dig into the areas of our life where we have been blinded by denial. For our moral inventory it’s very important that we stay balanced. We should make a list of our not only our weaknesses but also our strengths.

Grab a pen and paper as we follow Celebrate Recovery’s suggestions for processing our Spiritual Inventory. Let’s start examining areas of our life:

Relationships:

Who has hurt you? Who have you hurt? Are you seeking revenge / holding grudges?

Priorities

What are your priorities? What is good / bad about them? Who do they affect and how?

Attitudes

Are you grateful, complaining, sarcastic, anxious, fearful? Do you blow up easily?

Integrity

Are there times you have been dishonest? Pretended to be something you aren’t?

Mind

How do your guard your mind? Do you fill it with unhealthy movies, books or magazines?

Body

How have you treated your body? What habits or physical activities do you have?

Family

How do you treat family members? What family secret are you denying?

Church

Have you been faithful to church in the past? Are you discouraging your family from church?

There is much more that we can talk about when it comes to our inventory. It’s my desire here to provide a jump start for your recovery. Please know this column isn’t designed to take the place of a 12 Step program. If you aren’t already attending a group, I encourage you to go to the Celebrate Recovery website: www.celebraterecovery.com to find a group in your area.

Also, if you don’t have an accountability partner yet, attending a CR group will help you to find someone to help you work through your inventory list. Remember, the road to recovery is not designed to be traveled alone!

I pray God will reveal just what you need to see as your courageously take this step. Blessings… Tamara

Click here to watch / listen to our Road to Recovery theme song: The Serenity Prayer.