Christian Spiritual Formation: How Important Is Spiritual Formation?

Be familiar with the following content from The Preface, Introduction, Appendix, & Chapters 1-5 of “Living Out the Mind of Christ: Practical Keys to Discovering and Applying the Mind of Christ in Every Day Life” by Dr. Gutierrez

Always have compassion, be humble in what my assigned duties are, give respect and reverence unto God, and continue to equip myself for mission work unto God. Keep up with my prayer life, daily devotion and meditational times.

The book is divided into seven parts. The book focuses spiritual growth and it is a manual for building a Spirit-filled life in a world where perfection can only be found in God’s loving vision. Ortberg helps us gauge your spiritual health and measure the gap between where you are now and where God intends you to be. As the author emphasizes on

The counselee is asked what brought him into the office today; in which he is expected to thoroughly present his concerns. One would at this time, introduce the counselee with spiritual formation strategies, as means to spiritually challenge the maturity and intimacy the counselee has with God (131) in a manner that is gently, compassionately, and with a humble spirit presentation.

The principles are for continual growth and elevation for Christians. The instructions in The Bible are not only for guidance is a comforting and strengthening agent. Given this statistic, this could be an additional reason why God created mankind in His image to take part in on other wonderful helpful contributions. Highlighting the difference between a secular worldview and a biblical worldview, the incorporation of belief and doctrine, theories of vocation and efforts for living righteously is proven to be an influential lifesaving

Christianity is a faith based religious tradition, of which the follower is considered to be a Christian adherent. Thus, being a living tradition, Christianity is continually subject to change in accordance to the needs of the adherent and reaffirming the Christian tradition within a contemporary context. The aspects, which attribute the present existence of Christianity and its dynamism therein, include sacred texts and writings, ritual and ceremonies, beliefs and believers, and ethics. Ultimately, the aforementioned characteristics strive to form and continually validate answers to the enduring questions of life through a process of change, which simultaneously highlights Christianity as a living tradition.

Living religious traditions are integrated meaning systems which provide adherents with comprehensive and distinctive answers to the enduring questions of human existence. Religious traditions are ultimately shaped and reformed by the actions of the individuals who practices the faith. In a contemporary Christian environment, prominent practices to have a significant contribution to Christianity as a living religious tradition are Baptism and the works of Pope John XXIII. The significant practice of Baptism, as a central element of Christianity, is an initiation of adherents to a “discipleship” with Christ as well as a reinforcement of the community’s relationship with God. Furthermore, the development and expression of the Christian tradition

Another, aspect, spirituality is not as much a prearranged system, it is a quest and a prolongation of one’s development.

In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting”.

Spiritual disciplines will prepare us for our journey in Christ. I feel if understanding correctly, the classical Christian Pilgrimage remind us that we all have issues requiring regular examination. In chapter eight, the classical Christian Pilgrimage tells us we are at different stages on the path of wholeness in Christ. However, in my thoughts some areas of our Christian journey we may be doing well, but in other areas we have not touched at all. Not to mention, these are the place we are not ready or capable of handling yet, however, as we mature in God and He knows what we can handle, then we are awakened. God awakens us to our true selves which have not been completely revealed. In reality, once we reach maturity to God, he reveals all that is hidden deep inside of us (the real us/you). By the same token, he let us see the inner behaviors, attitudes, desires, in fact how we measure up in them being Christ-like. I feel the awakening stage deals with the comfort of being set free of these issues that are holding us back also causing detours on our path to wholeness in Christ. Equally, the threat is being afraid to see who we really are; also how far from Christ-like we really are. We must first be awakened from our separation also alienation from God (Mulholland 79-82).

Spiritual. Daily time spent in prayer along with a regular, unhurried time in the Bible is essential for growth. In the Bible, growth is linked to spiritual maturity and becoming more like Jesus (Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18). Time in prayer, at the beginning and the end of day

Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, was first published in 1978. It presented sets of Disciplines that, if followed, would serve as vehicles for a deeper relationship with Christ as well as preparation for service. These disciplines are divided into three broad categories: the Inward Disciplines, the Outward Disciplines, and the Corporate Disciplines (Foster, 2003). Each category contains four Disciplines, which indicated by their titles, moves the disciple from the very personal to the larger congregational community (Foster, 2003). Recognizing humanity’s trend to make any process a law or regulation to follow, Foster warned against this by reminding the disciple that to do so would turn

I’d like to state the most obvious observation that I’ve made about spiritual formation; that is that I will always need to be seeking for ways to nurture my personal spirituality throughout my life. I know that to most people this may sound like a “duh” statement, but for me it has truly become a reality and one that I must admit I have been struggling to embrace. I was brought up in a church that, like most traditional churches, stayed happy living in the “comfort zone” of their Christianity. They took everything that the Bible said at face value without digging in to find out why they believed what they believed. I had never been challenged to look deeper into the text. In the past few years I have felt the need to tunnel out of this

Barry and Connolly in their book The Practice of Spiritual Direction say that, “we define Christian spiritual direction as help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God and to live out the consequences of the relationship”. Smith says that “spiritual direction rests on the assumption that each Christian believer has the capacity for an immediate relationship with Christ. This means that the Christian, in real time, encounters the crucified, risen and ascended Lord”. Therefore, my understanding of spiritual direction is that it is an attempt to help Christians to listen to God’s voice, to develop intimate prayer life and relationship with God and to grow in response to God.