Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual Disciplines

Inspired by The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible and adapted by Jeff Pratt

Confession: Sharing your deepest weaknesses and failures with God and trusted others, so that we may enter into God’s grace and mercy and experience his ready forgiveness and healing.
Lev. 5:5, Ezra 10:1, Ps. 32:5, Prov 28:13, Matt 3:6, James 5:16, 1 Jn. 4:15

Fasting: The voluntary abstention from an otherwise normal functions – most often eating – for the sake of intense spiritual activity.
Deut. 8:3 ; 2 Chron 20:3 ; Dan 9:3 ; Joel 2:12-13 ; Matt 4:2

Fellowship: Engaging with other disciplines in the common activities of worship. study, prayer, celebration, and service, which sustain our life together and enlarge our capacity to experience more of God.
Ps 133:1-3 ; Matt 18:20 ; Actes 2:42 ; Rom 12:4-17 ; Heb 10:23 -25

Meditation: Prayerful rumination upon God, his Word, and his world.
Gen 24:63 ; Josh 1:8 ; Ps 1,2 ; 77:6,12 ; Phil 4:8 ; Col 3:2

Prayer: Interactive conversation with God about what we and God are thinking and doing together.
1 Chr 17:16-27 ; 2 Chr 33:13 ; Ps 32:6 ; Matt 14:23 ; Mk 14:32-39

Service: Loving, thoughtful, active promotion of the good of others and the causes of God in our world, through which we experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves.
1 Sam 2:11-26 ; Ps 113:1 ; Prov 3:27-28 ; Jer 29:7 ; Lk 22:26-27 ; Eph 3:7

Silence: Closing off our souls from « sounds », whether noise, music, or words, so that we may better still the inner chatter and clatter of our noisy hearts and be increasingly attentive to God.
Ps 62:1 & 5 ; Isa 30:15 ; Lam 3:26 ; James 1:19

Solitude: The creation of an open, empty space in our lives by purposefully abstaining from interaction with other human beings, so that, freed from competing loyalties, we can be found by God.
Ps 62:5 ; Matt 14:23 ; Mk 1:35 ; Lk 5:16 ; 6:12 ; 9:18

Study: The intentional process of engaging the mind with the written and spoken Word of God and the world God has created in such a way that the mind takes on an order conforming to the order upon which it concentrates.
Josh 1:8 ; Ezra 7:10 ; Ps 1:1-6 ; 111:2 ; 2 Tim 2:15

Worship: Expressing in words, music, rituals, and silent adoration the greatness, beauty and goodness of God, by means of which we enter the supernatural reality of the shekinah, or glory, of God.
Gen 24:48 ; Josh 5:14 ; Ps 99:5 ; Lk 2:37 ; Rom 12:1 ; Rev 7:15

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