Pleasing God Podcast
Pleasing God Podcast
Cultivating Spiritual Growth: Embracing Disciplines Amidst Life's Chaos
Ever wondered how to truly incorporate spiritual disciplines into your hectic life? Drawing from my own journey through pastoral ministry, education, and family chaos, I promise you'll learn practical strategies for nurturing your spiritual growth amidst the whirlwind. Inspired by the Apostle Paul's guidance in 1 Timothy 4:7, I discuss the transformative power of disciplines like Bible reading, prayer, fasting, worship, and solitude, taking cues from Jesus Himself. I'll show you how starting small and being consistent can make all the difference, turning your daily routine into a path toward becoming more like Christ.
The strength of a Christian community cannot be underestimated in this journey. I highlight how having reflective and supportive individuals around you can catalyze growth, helping you stay focused on your spiritual journey. Learn how prioritizing worship and community, taking small, consistent steps, and reflecting on your progress weekly can foster godliness and glorify God. Remember, it's not about perfection but faithful progress, following the guiding principle from 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Whether you're battling against sin or deepening your prayer life, this episode offers encouragement and practical advice to keep you on track. Reach out if you need encouragement or have questions—you're not alone in this journey.
Stock Music provided by wolfgangwoehrle, from Pond5
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God podcast, a show focused on helping Christians to think biblically, engage practically and live faithfully for the glory of God. I'm your host, jonathan Soule, and on this episode I want to talk about spiritual disciplines for the busy Christian. I know the struggle of busyness. I know that in the world that we live in today, it is fast-paced, there's always something to do. There seems to never be enough time in the day to accomplish the tasks that we want to get done. Life is busy and full. I can relate to my own life. I mean serving in pastoral ministry, finishing up my education, investing in a marriage, five children plus twins coming and probably by the time this episode is released the twins will have in here. So seven children and life is so full. And in the midst of the fullness of life and the busyness of life, I mean, I know, in the summertime doing sports and being at three or four different baseball fields on a single Saturday, running all over the place, and that's just the children, let alone the demands of ministry and everything else. It just seems so full and one of the things that I think can happen, and I know from even personal experience, is that spiritual disciplines seem to struggle or get kind of pushed to the back burner because of the busyness of life. But while life is busy, we need to recognize that spiritual growth is still possible in the midst of busyness. And that's what I want to focus on for this episode, thinking about what Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, verse 7,. He tells Timothy to train himself, or train yourself for godliness. When we think about training, it's a discipline, it's repetitive, it's working towards a goal, and so the expectation for Paul to Timothy is that he would embark on this training, this regiment, these disciplines that would produce in him godliness. And so when we talk about spiritual disciplines, well, what are they? I think a simple definition is practices that draw us closer to God. That's what we would say is spiritual disciplines. Practices that draw us closer to God, that's what we would say is spiritual disciplines. Practices that draw us closer to God, specifically reading the Bible, prayer, fasting, worship, and the list can go on from there. But those are some of the big ones when we think about spiritual disciplines.
Speaker 1:Solitude is another one, the time in the midst of busyness. It's like when will that ever happen? But we need to make time for it. A pastor that I've listened to for many years has always said you will make time for what's most important to you, and so thinking about these disciplines and prioritizing the time to train ourselves is of the utmost importance, solitude being one of them. I don't think there was a man in ministry more busy than the Lord Jesus Christ. Always, people were always vying for his time and he could have had a million things to do all the time, but he prioritized solitude as a discipline.
Speaker 1:In Mark, chapter 1, verse 35, it says in rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went to a desolate place and there he prayed. He rose early, he needed the solitude, he needed that time to pray in silence with him and the Father. And so when we think about spiritual disciplines in this way, it's to draw us closer to God. Jesus is an example of making time for solitude, to exercise the communion that he had and to fellowship with the Father, and the goal again is to grow in Christ. When we think about these disciplines that we would invest in, it's not a matter of simply checking off boxes or to-do lists like oh, I did my Bible reading this morning, I prayed my prayer and now I go off to do the thing that I'm supposed to be doing. That occupies my time.
Speaker 1:No, the goal in spiritual disciplines is not simply read the Bible and pray fast. Worship spiritual disciplines is not simply read the Bible and pray fast. Worship have solitude. The goal is to become more like Jesus, to be transformed into his likeness, to be those that rejoice in hope, that are patient in tribulation, that are constant in prayer. That's what we're looking to do as followers of Jesus in the practice of spiritual disciplines. So we acknowledge that life is busy, and it doesn't seem to get any less busy as time goes on. So we recognize that as an issue, but we still know that spiritual growth is possible, and so, as we would exercise spiritual disciplines Bible reading, prayer, fasting, worship, solitude we need to think practically, then, about how do we do this.
Speaker 1:How can I begin if I'm not practicing or training myself for godliness through the spiritual disciplines? What are some practical steps or strategies that I can take to incorporate spiritual disciplines into my busy life? And while I know it's challenging, let me give you three. First, start small and seek to be consistent. Set aside 10 to maybe 15 minutes a day of focused Bible reading. It doesn't have to be large portions of scripture, it could be as simply as a chapter or read the proverb of the day, maybe an Old Testament reading and a New Testament reading, something that's bite-sized, something that's achievable for the busy life, not something where you would undertake to do this big Bible reading plan only to burn out a week later because you try to go from zero to a hundred.
Speaker 1:Start small, be consistent, and when you start the patterns of small, consistent wins, they can tend to grow. So five minutes, 10 minutes in the Bible, set your mind thinking about the things of the Lord. I know in my life I can get so busy in ministry that I can forget to stop, be still and know that God is the Lord, forget to stop, be still and know that God is the Lord. And I know that on the days that I might just be so wrapped up in all the things that I need to get done because you know my mind's just in this place and I don't stop, pause, open the Word of God, pray and be still before the Lord of God, pray and be still before the Lord that my day tends to not go that good or it's not as good as it could be if I take that time in the morning, that focused Bible reading, and spend that time in Devotion and communion and fellowship with the Lord. So start small and be consistent. Create a rhythm, a habit of whether it be, you know, connecting it to your morning cup of coffee, or set your alarm for 10 minutes sooner, or don't hit snooze the third time, whatever it might be that could help you Do that thing. Connect an already existing behavior coffee, wake time, whatever it might be when you get up to opening your Bible and seeking to read that.
Speaker 1:Another thing too to be small, start small and be consistent is praying in the small moments, and what I mean by that is not necessarily this long drawn out, eyes closed, head bowed on your knees in your prayer closet for 35 minutes before you eat breakfast. Maybe you'll get there, but maybe you never will. Nonetheless, praying in the small moments when you're driving, when you're maybe exercising or you're going for a walk. I love doing prayer walks. It's usually maybe right after I eat my first meal of the day or during like a lunch break. I'll go and I like to walk. A couple days a week I'll walk two miles, and on my two-mile walk. I usually either listen to the scripture or I spend that time praying praying for members of my church, praying for the things that are heavy upon my heart, and it's truly a walk of communion with God. And so, again, I'm already doing something, I'm already going for a walk and I'm using that time and connecting that to a spiritual discipline, whether it be reading or listening to the Bible, listening to some sort of Christian podcast or sermon that's edifying to me, or spending that time just praying and talking to God, just about whatever's going on in my heart. So start small, be consistent.
Speaker 1:Here's a second practical strategy Again integrate these disciplines into the daily routine of life. So one of the greatest times or most useful times that we can have when it comes to implementing the spiritual disciplines is in the car. Now, it goes without saying, don't close your eyes and bow your head to pray while you're driving. It's not very intelligent, but you know that. But what I do mean is something like listening to the scriptures or sermons during commutes, when you're driving from one place to another. This goes along with the kind of content that you're consuming, whether it be through social media or whatever your streaming services might be, but you can easily download an app that reads the Bible or a favorite sermon or something of that nature that draws you into the Word of God and draws you into fellowship, communion with God, similar, as I said, with my walks.
Speaker 1:You can turn your routine activities into moments of prayer, whether you're doing chores. If you're a mom folding laundry, you could be thinking, oh man, I have endless loads of laundry, which is probably true. But you could also, instead of maybe not liking the amount of laundry that you have to fold, but thanking God for all the bodies that go into those clothes, and just to give thanks or to pray to God in the midst of your activities, to set your mind in that place. And so, by integrating disciplines of Bible reading, prayer into the rhythms of life, will help you to train yourself for godliness in the midst of your busy life. And here's the third practical strategy for the implementation of spiritual disciplines, especially in a busy life Prioritize worship and community. And I cannot overstate this point, and it's not simply because I'm a pastor, but I have seen in my own life the immense value of worship and community and I have no idea where my life would be without the worshiping community, and what I mean by that is attending a local church, attending the Sunday morning gathering, being in the presence of other people, as, collectively, we seek the presence of God in our gathering. So prioritize worship. This is so valuable for fostering and training ourselves for godliness and fostering these spiritual disciplines in our life.
Speaker 1:Prioritize worship. Life can be so busy, but we need to prioritize that day of the week. God has given us a Sabbath as a rhythm One, two, three, four, five, six rest. One, two, three, four, five, six rest. That is to be a rhythm of our lives. Now we're not to be slaves to that in a legalistic sense. Man was not created for the Sabbath, jesus says, but the Sabbath for man, it is for our good. Being busy seven days a week without rest and being able to recharge, it's not how we were wired. Think about on the seventh day of creation, god rested. Think about on the seventh day of creation, god rested. The God who never sleeps nor slumbers, rested not because he needed to, but because it shows us the rhythm of the week and it is an example for us. And so that prioritizing of worship that seventh day or the first day of the week for Christians because of the resurrection. That is to be safeguarded time.
Speaker 1:I decide long before Sunday morning whether or not I'm going to be there. That decision has been made months, years in advance. I don't wake up and it's not because, again, I'm a pastor. I mean, obviously I have to go to work that day, but because I'm a Christian. Before I even went into ministry, sunday was a no-brainer. It wasn't a matter of what are we doing today. We're going to worship. We're going to be with the people of God. This is what we were created to do and this fosters a good practice and spiritual discipline in our life. Corporate worship is a discipline and it helps us and shapes us to become more like Jesus through the community witness so strong encouragement.
Speaker 1:We prioritize the gathering of God's people. When it comes to sports and we have a bunch of children in sports there will be no sports on Sunday. If the team is playing on Sunday, if the team is practicing on Sunday, it's already clear to the coaches, it's already clear to everybody involved. This is who we are. Sundays are off limits. If we get a schedule ahead of time, before we sign up and we realize it's Sunday, we've told the children we don't do that. That's not who we are. And so we prioritize the Sunday for the gathering of God's people, and we worship through music. We worship through the preaching of the word, we worship through the singing of the word, we worship through the seeing of the word in baptism, in the Lord's supper, we worship through hearing the word read. These are all ways in which we can. Our hearts are transformed in worship. So prioritize worship and community. This is the fellowship of the saints.
Speaker 1:Don't be someone who for fostering spiritual disciplines and growth. Don't be somebody who slips in the back and slips out too fast. If you do and I know there are many reasons why that happens you're selling yourself short. You're short changing what you can offer and what can be offered to you within the community, what you can offer and what can be offered to you within the community. Immerse yourself in the life of the church. Build relationships with others. This will help you and that will foster growth in your life. Be a part of accountability relationships.
Speaker 1:For the purpose of spiritual disciplines, it is vital to have people in your life that will ask you questions How's your Bible reading doing? How's your prayer life going? How's the battle against sin going? Are there any situations in your life where you know you're weak. What can I do to pray for you, brother or sister? How can I help you and you help me as we both seek to train ourselves for godliness? The only place you're going to get that is in the Christian community through the local church, and it's of immense value and good. So practical strategies Start small, be consistent, integrate the disciplines into the daily life and prioritize worship and community in your life.
Speaker 1:And I can say from my own personal experience, all of these practices and strategies have helped me and helped form me as a Christian, form me as a man of God and help shape and foster the practices and disciplines in my life that train me for godliness. So I hope it's an encouragement to you. But again, let me just remind you don't aim for perfection it's not possible this side of heaven but seek to pursue those small, faithful steps that lead to growth, that lead to godliness. So let me challenge you this week choose a discipline to focus on, whether it be Bible intake, scripture reading, prayer, fasting, worship, solitude pick one. And in picking one one, focus intently on small, consistent steps. Seek to integrate that discipline into your daily life and then, after a week, look at that, see how that's working in your life and see what progress you might be making, as practicing these disciplines will train you for godliness and make you more like Jesus.
Speaker 1:I hope thinking through spiritual disciplines and the training, especially in the busyness of life, is a helpful word to you, is encouraging You're not discouraged by it and you're willing to say I'm going to try this, I'm going to work towards implementing some of these disciplines in my life, small steps at a time. Small steps lead to bigger steps and that in the end, this helps you to glorify God as you reflect Jesus Christ in this world. I want to thank you for listening to the Pleasing God Podcast. If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you. You can reach out at questions at pleasinggodpodcastorg. And remember 1 Thessalonians 4.3,. This is the will of God, your sanctification.
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