Necessary Spiritual Practices

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:16 NIV)

Our world is filled with activity and noise. God sometimes (often?) speaks in the still, small voice of our inner thoughts, and the noise and bustle of the world make it difficult to hear His gentle whisper. Like Jesus, it is important for us to get alone, get quiet, read scripture and pray. We refer to this practice of prayer and scripture reading as a daily quiet time, or daily devotional time, and it is the life blood of a deep, abiding relationship with the Living God.

In his book, Convergence, Jon Thompson affirms again and again the truth and implications of John, chapter 5, verse 19:

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

A major premise of Convergence is that Jesus intentionally limited His access to His divine nature and chose to live as a human being in the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, modeling for us the kind of life we can live in that same Spirit. And so Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. To see what the Father is doing, to hear His promptings and direction, involves spiritual practices - spiritual disciplines - that place us in His presence where we can hear His voice. Thompson says, "Spiritual habits or practices are the very thing that can place us in His presence so we can be transformed in our character and hear what we're called to do."

Like Jesus, to see what the Father is doing means we must spend time in the scriptures, which are our most reliable source of knowing God and His will. We must spend time in prayer, which is our most personal source of knowing Him and His will. And we must spend time in worship, which is our most open-hearted source of meeting Him and hearing His voice. The spiritual disciplines are places where God dependably shows up to meet us and to form and shape our minds, hearts and will.

And just as God dependably shows up to meet us in the holy habits, we must also show up, practicing them consistently and opening our lives to Him in more than rote, mechanical, religious practices that have no particular life in them. I wonder how many of us who read these words have an unused gym membership or a home treadmill that serves as nothing more than a drying rack for our clothes?

John and Charles Wesley began their spiritual pilgrimage by practicing the spiritual disciplines of reading scripture, prayer and "holy conferencing" together with others in a small group of men who met together at Oxford University which was derisively called "the holy club" by others - a name the group decided to take as their own. Out of that support and accountability group was born the Methodist method of spiritual growth and discipleship that had at its core the Class Meeting. There were three General Rules of the Methodist Societies given by Wesley:

Do no harm.

Do good.

Attend to the ordinances of God

Methodists have always been charged with doing no harm - avoiding the common evils of the day, which included in Wesley's day profaning the sabbath, slaveholding, and lending money to the poor at high interest (usury). Wesley urged the Methodists to practice positive discipleship - to do good - by giving alms to the poor, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked in the spirit of Jesus' parable of the last judgment of the sheep and the goats. And the Wesley's required the Methodists to attend to the ordinances of God - those practices ordained by God to be the means of grace by which the Holy Spirit meets us and forms our lives in holiness and Christlikeness. The ordinances of God Wesley specifically recommends are some of the classic spiritual disciplines handed down through the ages of the Church:

The public worship of God

The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded

The supper of the Lord (Holy Communion)

Family and private prayers

Searching the scriptures

Fasting or abstinence

Alongside and as part of these particular spiritual disciplines are the other spiritual disciplines Thompson lifts up in Convergence: silence, simplicity, submission, spiritual direction, confession and the like. The spiritual practices are not optional or meant only for Christians who want to become pastors or missionaries. They are necessary spiritual habits for all who want to live in spiritual health and growth. They are an investment in God's transforming work in our own and other's lives.

My own experience of practicing the spiritual disciplines has been up and down for a season, but consistent for years of walking with God. That experience has taught me that we will never find time to pray, read God's Word, listen for His voice and journey together with a small group of other Christians who encourage us and hold us accountable. We must make time for them. What works in my own life is meeting God at the beginning of the day, before the pressure of time and activities and noise encroach on my life. Others who are not “morning people” might find the time for daily communing with God works better at the end of the day.

The results of this long-term investment in spiritual practices have been growth and depth in my relationship with Jesus, a growing sense of the mind of Christ and clearer sense of God's will in general for all believers and specifically for my own life, and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to live a life that honors God, finds victory over evil, and fills me with deep purpose and joy no matter what the circumstances of the moment.

By practicing the necessary spiritual disciplines, we commune with God and hear what He wants us to do, just as Jesus did when He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Let us not grow weary in doing well. Let us do no harm, do good, and attend to the ordinances of God. Let us trust that God will show up as we show up in these practices, and over time the results will be steady transformation in our lives.