The New Year arrived and the world has continued to move ahead. I don’t know about you, but I’m never ready on the first day of January to make declarations, goals, or resolutions. I need time to process, pray, and listen before I make any commitments, and I’m NEVER ready to do that in December. Maybe you can relate? Not to worry, I’ve got you covered! In this week’s post, we’re going to look at 3 awesome spiritual disciplines that will help realign the heart as you pray and plan for what comes next.
Do you have a word for the year? Not that you need one (can’t stress that enough), but sometimes a word can help focus and act like a filter as you live and move and be. Words come as we quieten our hearts before God and listen.
Stand…
That was last year’s word. Every year begins with wonder and curiosity about why the Lord would press that particular word. I’m not gonna lie, all year long I relied on Him, thankful for the muscle memory of practicing his promises to hold my ground. Life happens and despite some of our best efforts, we don’t have control over what happens. Every year has its high points and low points, but this past year serves as an excellent reminder that we, the children of God must listen and then act.
Slowly over the last few months, I’ve sensed a shift in my spirit. I usually perceive a stirring before I have words to articulate, so I’ve learned to not fight it, but to lean in and wait for clarity of words to come. In my experience, discernment doesn’t always just come with words and critical understanding, the entire revelation usually clarifies in the midst of the process. Spiritual disciplines help to create space to see and and hear the voice of the Lord.
This past week as I’ve been praying and listening to the Spirit, I am hearing the word, Overcome. I am believing that this will be a year, not just of breakthrough, but in healing. I do not, however, know what that will look like, and that’s okay. My goal is simply this, to press in, listen, and walk the way the Spirit leads. Sounds easy enough, right? The reality is, it will require effort and intentional focus.
Can I be honest?
I LOVE the concept of plans and lists. The very idea of organizing and developing systems gets me juiced up, but I’m also creative. Creative people sometimes struggle to maintain structure, which is very true about me. So, I often feel like I’m at war with myself. Do you see where I’m going? I want a good plan, with boundaries and measurable actions, because I see the logical value of how it can help me move toward my dreams and passions. But the creative side of me gets distracted by all the shiny, sparkly things.
Here’s the thing, we are all super different, which is lovely. God created us in His perfect image, but with a diverse flourish. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Go ahead, take a minute and revel in the grace that God sees you with pure delight in His eyes. Embrace your uniqueness, whatever it is, and lean into the fullness of what it looks like to live from it.
Okay, now that said, I do think it’s important to also appreciate the fact that we are capable of cultivating the underdeveloped gifts and skills God had given us. He didn’t plant dreams and passions in the hearts of His people without also equipping them.
You and I, should be exerting a little effort in this process. The intentional practice of building in spiritual disciplines help us develop intimacy with God. And everything we do, ought to be birthed from that place of grace.
Spiritual Disciplines
We live in a world obsessed with rights and freedoms, so the word discipline can sometimes take a negative turn. That is not the case, however, in terms of our faith. Spiritual disciplines help give us direction as we journey to the heart of God. Why would we turn away from that?
The fact of the matter, is that we one of the gifts God has planted in all of us, through the Holy Spirit, is self-control. That means, you and I can control ourselves. Another way to put is, is that we are capable of self-discipline; we can do hard things.
So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for you feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.
Hebrews 12:12-14
I love that verse. When I feel tired and weary, and my spirit begins to complain, the Lord always takes me right back to this exhortation. So, self-discipline is not only possible, it’s expected. And God loves it when we make the effort because that’s what sacrifice is. Spiritual disciplines are vehicles that help to surrender to His presence. This is what worship is.
Examen, the spiritual discipline of gratitude.
The spiritual discipline of Examen is one of my favorites because there is so much we miss as we are busy going through all the motions. This practice trains us to look for the presence of God as we remember the good moments as well as the hard ones. It’s often easier to see God’s movements of grace in the blessings, but do you see his grace in the midst of difficulty? The beauty examen is that can be done daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly, on your own or in a group. It is always a good time to incorporate this into faith practices.
Practice
Find a quiet and comfortable place. Maybe grab a journal and pen so that you can write down the things that come up in this session with the Lord. Remember the last year.
What are you thankful for? Why?
What are you least thankful for? Why?
What was the most life-giving experience? Why?
What was the least life-giving experience? Why?
How did you meet God in all of it? What did He reveal to you in the good, life-giving moments? What did you learn about yourself in the not-so-life-giving moments?
Take time to remember, see, and listen to what the Lord wants to show you. Spend some time giving thanks. Allow your heart to confess and repent over the times you struggled to trust, complained, or acted in disobedience. Meet with your Savior and press into this process of grace, because transformation and healing are the fruits of that effort.
Contemplative Spiritual Disciplines
There are many spiritual disciplines we can practice that help us train our hearts toward the Father, but the contemplative ones are particularly good for the work we do in the secret place with God. Contemplation is really just about purposefully choosing to become more awake and open to the Lord. You can do that as you journal, pray, rest, retreat, slow down, simplify, and practice self-care. It’s about practicing the presence of God, so strip away whatever stands in the way and lean into the embrace of the Father.
Practice
Take stock. What are the lessons you’ve learned over the last year? Make a list and then talk about it with the Lord. It’s easy to compile but before you can canonize it, you have to sift it with Jesus. We often draw conclusions over ideas based on the limitation of our own personal experience, but the problem is that we are missing A LOT of data. We must learn to examine these ideas and thoughts through the lens of Jesus.
Ask the Holy Spirit questions like…
Is this true?
What am I missing?
Is there another perspective I don’t see?
Be quiet and wait. Practice listening. Are there scriptures that come to mind? Meet with the Father over the word and then take the next right step of obedience, whatever that may be.
Rule of life, a spiritual discipline for worship.
Intentional discipline helps us mark out the way. It takes effort and focus because we are surrounded by endless distractions. Rule of life helps to create boundaries so that you are crystal clear about what you will engage with and give yourself to. This is one of the spiritual disciplines focused on cultivating a life that keeps God first.
Did you catch that?
Putting God first is much easier that keeping Him first, but that is what it means to love God. Have you ever really thought about what it looks like to keep Him first in your heart and life?
When we practice rule of life, we define healthy rhythms that promote wholeness and grace. As we partner with the Holy Spirit we experience personal life transformation.
Love God; love others. I think most of us work to keep that order right, but what gets forgotten is that loving God isn’t a one-way thing. Keeping God first is happens in the context of an intimate relationship. You and I cannot love God or anyone else unless we are willing to receive His love first. It’s not once and done. Rule of life is one of the spiritual disciplines that help us practice loving God so that we are able to love others.
Practice
As you consider intimacy with God, what rhythms and boundaries do you need to set in order to love God as you honor your desires and limits? What kind of practices do you need to empty that make space for God in the craziness of everyday life?
Start with personality. How are you wired? Don’t fight that, lean into it. If you are an introvert then setting rhythms and rules that help create space to renew are necessary.
What are you passionate about? What do you value?
What are your current limitations? Health issues, finances, and stage of life are important to factor in. Honor them.
Spiritual disciplines for the new year
We have a saying at our church, “Just take the next right step.” Every time we make an intentional choice to do something new, we take another step in our journey to the heart of God. I don’t know about you, but that has revolutionized my personal expectations regarding spiritual growth.
There is something in me driven to nailing it. That propensity toward perfectionism has had a paralyzing effect over the years, particularly when faced with things that seemed too difficult with which to succeed. When I look at a full year trying to sumise what my spiritual goals should be I get overwhelmed. Breaking it down by using these spiritual disciplines helps me to simply take the next best step.
What has the Lord put on your heart? How will you mark out the way to obedience in that? I hope and pray you have found this to be helpful in your own process. If you would like to dig a little deeper, I’ve included a link to another blog post you can check out. It comes with a great tool designed to help build a spiritual growth plan for the year.