Prayer Is The Most Essential Of Spiritual Growth

Making an effort for private time with Jesus, meaning allowing my mind an opportunity for flowing freely. Listening prayer, as McNeal, (2011) wrote about in "A Work of Heart" is allowing our subconscious the right of passage to our conscious while simultaneously incorporating theology.

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

With my limited knowledge coming in, if you were to ask me what the spiritual disciplines were, I could probably name a few. I have heard of all of them, but I never really considered them spiritual disciplines. However, after reading a book by Donald Whitney, a professor a prestigious seminary in America, I was able to see how each of them fit.

My spiritual discipline for five days is going to be a quest for a well-ordered heart. A well-ordered heart will give me the life I have always wanted by fixing not only external problems but internal disorders as well. Ortberg lays out five questions that will help a person grow more intimately with God so that He can transform and mold our hearts. Each day I will approach a different question and use it in my daily routine and describe what I learned. The first question that Ortberg poses is how and when will I pray? First, I am going to pray for 10 minutes in silent prayer as soon as I wake. Then, do daily devotionals with my intern group and be intentional about prayer time. Also, start a habit of praying randomly throughout the day. Finally, before bed, spend 10 minutes praying about the day, about changes, and for the following day.

While I was making these exciting discoveries for myself, I was still wondering how I was supposed to instill this willingness to search in others. Once again, Foster provided an answer, though it was not the answer I had hoped for. What I had found so satisfying about this book was that it clearly spelled out things for me to do in order to grow spiritually. Yes, God does the real transforming work within us, but the "Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us. "6

Foster describes study as “the primary vehicle to bring us to ‘think about these thing’” (Foster, 1998, p.62). According to Foster, “study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction” (Foster,1998, p.63). Study is analytical, and is a perception into the reality of a given situation. There are four steps in study: the first step is repetition, the second step is concentration, the third step is comprehension, and the final step is reflection. Repetition involves the regular rehearsal of the deeds of God. The idea is that over time the repetition will allow these deeds to modify a person’s behavior. Concentration involves a person concentrating what

America is land based on freedoms; one of those is freedom of religion. However, in today’s school system that freedom is not allowed, because prayer is banned from schools. This is an injustice to American people who prefer to patriciate in prayer before a decision is made, tests are taken, games are played, or any other major event that warrants prayer. Though prayer should not be mandatory it should be available to those who wish to pray.

Spiritual disciplines are learned through periods of time that impose certain boundaries or directions on a believer’s life in order to further their relationship with Christ. In our daily lives it can be difficult to set aside special time to think about divine matters, but it is ever important that we do so; especially in today’s age of never ending materialism. As Blaise Pascal said, “Human things must be known to be loved; but divine things must be loved to be known”. If we don’t specifically set aside time to love the divine things, we will never know them.

I am taking your advice and picking up the book Spiritual Formation: A Wesleyan Paradigm to use in my daily devotions. Our conversation about the importance of focusing on spiritual formation, due to the demands of officership, provided valuable insight into my need of intentionality in this area of my life. Thank you for making me aware of the need to maintain

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

After reading the book College in the Spirit, I learned how to engage more in my faith was through prayer. In the book it talked about how prayer is a communion with God in the Spirit. The also stated how the deepest prayer simply involves as inner yielding and opening to God.

The most common thought of discipline in all Spirtual life, not just Christianity, is prayer. Commonly, prayer is used like God’s answering machine. Prayer is mostly used in times of need and at meal times; completely ignoring the real reason behind prayer. Prayer is our ability to communicate back and forth with God. In my own life, I have often slipped away in respects to prayer. It is easy to simply make excuses and situations to justify my need to ignore praying with God. In reality, plans and stress consumes the relationship with God that is so fundamental for growing. Through prayer, I clearly found my calling and the direction of my life. I have been poured into and shown God’s supernatural love in the moments of my life through prayer. I want to see my prayer life

We are called to connect with God through our daily, private prayers, and by celebrating liturgy. Taking responsibility to introduce prayer in our lives is essential to sustain a healthy connection with God every day. Because we are all made unique by God, the way each of us pray will be different. When we study, we become closer to God. How?

We Christians were spiritually dead from sin until Christ saved us. The great news is that His death on the cross provided us with spiritual birth, a new life. Moreover, “spiritual birth should lead to spiritual growth and development” (Koessler 72). Spiritual growth is a growth in knowledge of God, therefore, entering into a deeper relationship with Him as well as growing in obedience (74). When it comes to spiritual growth, the role of grace and effort is vital. We often ask ourselves how do they actually work together to achieve the growth. Koessler, the author of a book True Discipleship describes their relationship in spiritual growth that “spiritual growth is ultimately a matter of grace”, but it demands a “measure of Spirit-empowered effort to take a place” (79). In order for us Christians to experience the growth, we have to struggle to know and maintain the proper relationship of grace and effort where our effort is empowered by grace.

Prayer is an essential discipline of the Christian faith. History and cultural differences show us that many people engage in many different ways and techniques to pray and communicate with God. How do you find the right way for you?