Happy Thanksgiving (a day late, but better than not at all!)!!
Christian Spirituality is about living in Jesus and Jesus
living in us. It's about a relationship
with the Holy Spirit filled with love.
When we live with Holy Spirit, we find our source of power, our source
of energy, our source of life. We
suddenly begin to see Jesus in other people, we find the source of peace in all
circumstances, we discover that life is more than just what culture, our job,
or our current state of being defines it to be.
Life...true life..stems from living with Jesus in the power
of the Holy Spirit. Christian
"spirituality" then has often taken the forms of spiritual
disciplines...fasting, studying Scripture, silence, solitude, worship,
celebration, and praying. Among these, I
find the two most important to be studying Scripture and praying, but the
others should not be missed. However,
it's difficult to practice them all at once!
We can find deep joy in practicing each discipline in turn, or by
utilizing certain disciplines in certain periods of our lives.
For myself, my recent spiritual journey has been practicing
and becoming better at fasting (partial fast, I still drink fluids, including a
meal replacement health shake). Multiple
times over the past three to four years I swore that I would never give up
eating food (I do P90X and currently another workout program and am incessantly
hungry even when I eat large meals...yes this is gluttony, and yes God is
working on me). About a year ago a friend asked me to fast for a certain cause
and, deeply sighing, I agreed.
Since then, my life has radically changed in a multitude of
ways...it is as if a barrier or heavy curtain blocking my path from moving in
life was suddenly removed and lifted. I
am not even good at fasting - I sometimes forget to pray, I honestly am not
sure what it does for God, and sometimes it leads to a binge of food the
following day. But fasting, because of
God's love, mercy, and grace, has molded me to be less concerned about material
things, has helped me greatly with self control, and has deepened my
relationship with Jesus. And for
God? Who knows what it does...maybe it's
just the fact that we are willing to do something more to spend time with him
and get to know him...or maybe it gives God a break from providing food for us
for a day...or maybe God simply appreciates having love shown to him through
these acts of discipline. Fasting has
become very important for my spiritual journey.
Christian Spirituality is living life in the Holy
Spirit...it's about a love relationship, not necessarily
"discipline," but a shared life.
Will you commit to it? God can
work through it greatly in our lives, if we let him.
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