Spiritual Resolutions
Do you have any spiritual resolutions?
Verse of the Day
“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God.”
Today’s Devotional
I enjoy having a fresh start. I like a clean slate. I like new beginnings, but the daily grind of perseverance sometimes keeps me starting new things instead of finishing anything.
This year, I have a deep desire to long for God the way today’s verse describes. I want to hunger and thirst for God; not the blessings of God but God Himself. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about the new year and any goals or resolutions I might want to make. As I examined my desired outcomes, all of them were self-focused and none were Kingdom focused. That is not OK with me.
Then I remembered a book that my husband read a few years ago entitled “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster. As I read the introduction chapter about spiritual disciplines, I was very convicted. THIS is where I was to spend my energy and intentions.
Foster covers twelve spiritual disciplines in his book. They include inward disciplines (meditation, prayer, study, fasting), outward disciplines (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and corporate disciplines (confession, worship, guidance, celebration). He calls these classical Disciplines, stating: “they are not classical merely because they are ancient, although they have been practiced by sincere people over the centuries. The Disciplines are classical because they are central to experiential Christianity.”
There were a few other noteworthy tidbits from this chapter about the importance of practicing spiritual disciplines:
- One does not need to be a spiritual giant to practice any or all of these. “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.”
- The primary requirement is a longing after God.
- From Thomas Merton: “We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!”
- The Bible called people to such Disciplines as fasting, prayer, worship, and celebration but gave almost no instruction about how to do them.
- The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over [anything] by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshipping the will.
- God has given us the Disciplines of a spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.
- Practicing spiritual disciplines does not produce the change; it only places us where the change can occur. This is the path of disciplined grace.
After reading the first few chapters of this book, I decided that I would make spiritual resolutions this year. I want to practice some things that are new to me to help my spiritual muscles grow. I long to intentionally practice some things that will increase my desire for more of God. Because the more of God I experience, the more I want.
I have decided to spend one month on each of the disciplines from Foster’s book. Tomorrow we will discuss the discipline of meditation, which will be the spiritual practice that I will focus on for January. Then each month this year I will write a post about that month’s discipline. I invite you to join me, or to make your own spiritual resolutions. It seems like a worthy effort to do anything that will create in us an insatiable longing for God.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What spiritual issue have you tried to fix with your own will? How did that go?
How would you rate or examine your current level of thirst for God?
How could you increase your longing for God?
What spiritual resolutions do you want to make? If you’d like some accountability, email me at kristen@hungerthirst.net
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