Category Archives: Spiritual Growth

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The Power Of Gratitude

How Thankfulness Fuels Spiritual Growth

Since the beginning of the year, I have been preaching through Paul’s letter of 1 Thessalonians. We’ve been taking a pretty deep dive, and examining Paul’s instructions and encouragement in detail. In doing so, I have been struck by the frequency of the concept of thankfulness found in this short letter. It might not be too much of a stretch to say that the notion of gratitude is an underlying theme throughout.

Gratitude

Gratitude is so much more than just a polite “thank you” or a warm feeling after receiving a gift. In the spiritual life, gratitude is a spiritual discipline necessary for transformation. It’s a mindset and an attitude. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians offers a powerful example of how gratitude and thankfulness are not only central to our daily lives, but also an essential ingredient for deep and lasting spiritual growth.

In the first two chapters of Paul’s letter, he expresses an overflowing thankfulness for the Thessalonian believers. And his words are not just warm wishes or a pleasant courtesy. He provides a theological lens through which he interprets their faith and transformation. As I have studied this letter, I have found at least four reasons why gratitude is critical for our spiritual formation.

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Reading The Early Church Fathers

Why Reading The Classics Is Important For Spiritual Formation

Many years ago, I was inspired to read some of the earliest of Christian writers, the early Church Fathers. I set out upon this quest, and purchased a couple of books, Confessions, by Augustine, being the one I wished to start with. As a young and green youth minister, it didn’t take me long to figure out this was hard, and I soon lost interest. Augustine was shelved, and I read more modern fare.

Reading the Early Church Fathers

In 2022, I started work toward a Master of Arts through the newly formed graduate program at Ozark Christian College. As I worked through their Strategic Leadership concentration, Ozark was working to merge with Lincoln Seminary, and soon expanded their program from a single MA to multiple degrees, including a Master of Divinity. Since I was already in the habit of school again (after three decades), I pivoted into the MDiv program after completing the work for the Master of Arts.

This shift in focus required a few courses that I might not have originally pursued, including early church history and Christology. But now that they were needed, they were worked into my program schedule. Little did I know the impact these courses, and their professor, would have on my spiritual trajectory.

The first class was Christology. In that class we were required to read two books from early Church Fathers: On the Unity of Christ, by Cyril of Alexandria, and On the Cosmic Mystery of Christ, by Maximus the Confessor. And just like that, I was hooked.

These two books fanned the flame in my life that was sparked so many years ago with my attempt to read Augustine. I’m not sure whether I had found the right books to begin reading, or if I had grown enough in my spiritual formation to be at a point where I was ready for them. But I devoured these two books and added recommendations from my professor for more to both my wish list and my library.

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The Need For Community

Pursuing Spiritual Formation With Others

Spiritual Disciplines Banner

By nature, I am an introvert. Some may find that hard to believe, but it’s true. I am most inclined to withdraw into myself and avoid connections. It is only through years of practice that I have learned how to engage with others in meaningful and beneficial ways. I have learned to express myself as an extrovert, but even so, there are times when I much prefer the company of a book over anything — or anyone — else.

Community

I often wrestle with myself because of my nature. If God designed us to be in community, why do I have the personality that would prefer solitude over crowds? If it is not good to be alone, and we need one another, why do I withdraw into myself as a protective instinct in order to prevent the pain that comes with relationships and interactions with people? How do I reconcile these warring sides of my own self?

Because of my nature, I have had a hard time really opening myself up to others fully. It seems that when I do, it frequently leads to feelings of betrayal, rejection, frustration, and pain. The knee-jerk reaction is to simply say, “No. I just won’t open myself up to others.” But that’s not the way. That’s not how we are called to live as Christians.

We are called and created to be in community with one another. We are called to invest in one another, and journey with one another as we discover who God wants us to be, and as we journey toward that goal. Simply put, community exists when we connect with others in an authentic way, in order to love, serve, encourage, and support one another as we grow in Christ. This requires that I set aside my introverted nature and become open and transparent with others as I seek to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

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The Importance Of Spiritual Formation

Creating Habits That Will Help You Grow Spiritually

Over the years, I have written several times about the need to develop spiritual disciplines and habits that help with spiritual formation. This is one of the key areas of my own life, and it forms the foundation for spiritual growth.

The Importance Of Spiritual Formation

Developing spiritual practices that transform us is a critically important part of our spiritual growth. Such disciplines, or habits, help us maintain our growth as a priority, and can be a helpful tool for gaining deeper growth and maturity. I have several core disciplines that I have built into my daily routines, or at other frequent intervals. Many of those I have written about in the past here. They have been good companions, old friends even, that have helped me keep my focus on Jesus as I seek to become more and more like him.

For most of my life, I assumed that there were only a few of these disciplines, maybe a couple of dozen, at best. However, I have recently discovered that there are far more such habits that can help me grow than I ever imagined. As I have discovered some new ways of incorporating growth into my life, I have stretched myself by trying some of these new disciplines. Some of them have helped me tremendously; others have not been as beneficial for my life, at the point I am at right now. But who knows? They may be more helpful at a later point in my spiritual journey.

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Establishing Spiritual Disciplines

Creating Habits That Will Foster Spiritual Formation

Growing my faith, my relationship with God, is my top priority. Above all else, my relationship with Christ must come first. Everything else in my life hinges upon this. But in order to do that, you have to develop a series of disciplines that will help you grow and mature in your faith.

Establishing Spiritual Disciplines

As a minister, all too often, I have conversations that center around how to grow and mature in our faith. I have discovered that most people have no idea what to do to deepen their faith. Most of the people I have these conversations with want to deepen their faith, they just aren’t sure how to go about doing that.

As a result, I’ve decided to write a series of posts about spiritual disciplines. These are habits that I believe are necessary to grow in our faith. These are habits that are either prominent in Scripture, or have been proven through the lives of other, spiritually mature believers.

Not everyone grows in the same fashion or speed. What might be a breeze to one person may be a difficult discipline to master for another. But I firmly believe that each of these disciplines play a part in our becoming who God has created us to be.

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, I will be writing a series of posts about these disciplines. Each post (or posts, maybe) will define each discipline, and give some practical ideas on how to implement this effectively in our lives.

Ephesians is a theologically rich letter, filled with glimpses of core doctrine as well as deeper explorations of the main tenets of Christianity. And in Ephesians 3, Paul offers a prayer for the Ephesian Christians that God will do three things in their lives. In Paul’s prayer, he outlines the reality of the Trinity. His prayer petitions God in three ways: as the Spirit, as Christ, and then as the Father.

This three-fold prayer is powerful just as it’s written in this letter. Paul is seeking strength, love, and fullness for the Ephesian Christians, but when we factor in the Trinity, this takes on an ever deeper and richer significance.

In this Random Rambling, we’ll see take a brief look at what Paul prays, and what it means for the Ephesians, and for us as well.

About Random Ramblings:

Random Ramblings are just that: they are random, and I’ll probably ramble. It’s an opportunity to share a little about what’s going on in my mind, primarily about what I’ve gained from my study of Scripture. I hope these ramblings can be an encouraging and helpful part of your day. These brief videos will be shared here and on my YouTube channel. You can jump over there to subscribe for only video updates, or subscribe here to be notified of posts of all kinds.

Links:

Theology Matters. And I found a t-shirt to prove it. You can find it on Amazon.com.

The time of the book of Judges was a very dark period of Israel’s history. The people of Israel were in a cycle of sin and oppression. God would send a deliverer, and they would have peace for a time, and then the cycle would repeat, getting progressively worse. However, there are a few bright spots to be found during this time. One of them is the example of a man named Manoah.

One of those bright spots is the example of a man named Manoah and his wife, found in Judges 13. God reveals to Manoah what he is about to do for his people, and Manoah’s response is one that we can follow as an example of faith and obedience.

In this Random Rambling, we’ll see four characteristics that Manoah displays, characteristics we should develop in our own life as well.

About Random Ramblings:

Random Ramblings are just that: they are random, and I’ll probably ramble. It’s an opportunity to share a little about what’s going on in my mind, primarily about what I’ve gained from my study of Scripture. I hope these ramblings can be an encouraging and helpful part of your day. These brief videos will be shared here and on my YouTube channel. You can jump over there to subscribe for only video updates, or subscribe here to be notified of posts of all kinds.

Links:

That sweet mug is handmade by THrō Ceramics. I received it as part of my Mugbox subscription. Check them out!