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SPIRITUAL
EXERCISES
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One
thing to keep in mind when we pursue spiritual exercises
is that they are not marks of maturity. We don’t do them
because we are spiritual; we do them because we’re not
fully mature yet. We need to grow in the grace and nurture
of the Lord.
So
when you approach any of these little suggestions don’t
do them with a heroic attitude. Do them with humility and patience.
Many of us are not use to being very consistent in our spiritual
growth so don’t be hard on yourself. Guilt will not get
you very far!
Spiritual
exercises provide us a way to open ourselves to the grace
(power) of God in our lives. Grace is more than forgiveness.
Grace is God’s power at work in the life of a follower
of Jesus. Consider the following passages and look at the relationship
between grace and God’s power or ability in the life
of believers.
"And
with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon
them all." Acts 4:33 NASB
"And
Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders
and signs among the people." Act 6:8
"Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(4) I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of
God which was given you in Christ Jesus, (5) that in everything
you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge,
(6) even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed
in you, (7) so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting
eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, (8) who
will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of
our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 1:3-8 NASB
"But
by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward
me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of
them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." 1 Corinthians
15:10 NASB
Faithful
followers of Jesus have referred to Spiritual Exercises or
Disciplines as "means of grace." This implies
that there are things we can do that expose us to the grace
of God. We don’t earn grace; rather we expose more and
more of our thinking, our feelings and our lives to God’s
grace so He can bear more fruit (Galatians 5:22, 23) in our
lives.
Experiment
with the following Exercises:
Exercise
#1 - Worry
Jesus said "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried
about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink;
nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life
more than food, and the body more than clothing? (26) "Look
at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor
gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth much more than they? Matthew 6:25-26 NASB
Most of us have a difficult time with worry. We worry about
money, our kids, growing old, and a million other things. But
if we try to directly stop worrying, we will not get very far.
We must work from the inside out of our lives. In the passage
above Jesus instructs us not to worry, but then he gives us
a key to indirectly work on worry.
He
says (paraphrase from Mathew 6)
" I
don’t want you to worry about the temporary needs
of food and clothing. Life, real life, is more than
what you eat or wear. Here’s how to defeat
worry. Go outside; find a place where you can observe
the birds flying around. Look at the beauty of nature
and how wonderful it works! God takes care of the birds
and he will take care of you! You are way more important
then them! "
So
find a place where you can do that. Don’t take your
Bible, don’t take a journal. Your job is simply to observe
and drink in the wonder of the creation around you. Don’t
try to make anything happen. Just be alone with God, be alone
in solitude and the quietness of nature. Look at how content
the birds seem. Remind yourself that this happens every day.
Day in and day out God is at work. He loves His creation and
he loves you! The more you practice this kind of exercise the
more you will discover that you too can trust God with the
circumstances that you face. His grace will begin to renew
your thoughts and you will discover that His love and power
will begin to saturate your being. He is here. His Kingdom
is at hand.
Exercise #2 - Loved by God
Do
you believe that God loves you? Do you believe this deep
in the center of who you are or do you "believe it" because
you know you should? In other words are you convinced of God’s
love for you? Most of us struggle believing that God loves
us unconditionally.
Because
of this we need a "means of grace" a method
to help renew our minds so that we actually believe (rely upon,
cling to, trust in, and be convinced of) that God loves us
with an everlasting love unlike anything else we have ever
known in this life.
The
Bible says …
"We
have come to know and have believed the love which God
has for us. God is love, and the one who abides
in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
1 John 4:16 NASB
Notice
that this passage says that "we have come to know" this
means that receiving God’s love and being convinced of
it is a process. It also says "that God is love." If
God is love what is his love like? I Corinthians 13 gives us
a wonderful description of God’s love. Have you ever
thought of God loving YOU like 1 Corinthians 13 describes?
That He is always patient with you, always kind, that He will
never give up on you, etc.! Perhaps you have, but if you are
not fully convinced of that try the following exercise.
DOWNLOAD an
attached Love Card that you can print out and then fill
your name in the blanks. Notice that this is all based
on 1 John 4:16 and 1 Corinthians 13. Since God is love,
then He loves us like love is described in the "love
chapter of the Bible."
So print out this card, cut it out, and then fill your name
in the blanks. To get the full affect you really should take
the time to write you name in the blanks! Seeing your name
in this context is a powerful experience. Then use the card
for a period of a week or more, every day and read and reread
the truth of it. Welcome God to show you how much He loves
you. Remember His Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
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