Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual Disciplines

When Jesus, in Mark 12:28-34, responded to the question of what is the greatest commandment, he captured the essence of discipleship – it is to love God and to love our neighbors. Implicit in his response is the reality that self-care is essential to love of others. Elsewhere, Jesus expands the notion of love of neighbor with images of cross bearing, foot washing, feeding, healing and crossing the illusionary human boundaries of race and ethnicity.

The heart of our spirituality is our relationship with God and our relationships with other people and the world around us. All relationships thrive on healthy communication, quality AND quantity time, mutual play and self-giving service.

The key spiritual disciplines of Fit & Faithful are those which grow our relationships with God and others: prayer, Bible reading, fellowship and service.

Prayer

Just as every husband and wife talk to each other throughout the week, most people pray to God. Often on the run…in the car…before meals…in crisis. It isn’t “talking” that develops intimacy in a marriage, it is communicating. It is taking intentional, undistracted, focused time to really concentrate in both sharing and listening. Fit & Faithful – in addition to the other aspects of our prayer lives – asks us to create just that kind of intentional time for prayer.

The prayer card in the Fit & Faithful workout booklet offers four forms for intentional prayer:

1) Intercessory conversation with God

2) Quiet, centering meditation

3) Meditation – imaginative entering – into a Bible passage

4) Following the suggestions on the prayer card

Starting with three sessions per week, building to five, with times varying from 5 to 15 minutes, these times for intentional prayer will take us to a new place of appreciation for God’s invitation to call upon Him in all times.

Bible Reading

Often our devotional reading of the Bible – if we do it at all – is not really about reading the Bible. We might read a couple of verses followed by an author’s thoughts in a devotional guide. Or we might read just enough to prepare for our Sunday School class or small group. Far more likely, we make a resolution on January 1st to read the Bible and then give up half way through Genesis!

Fit & Faithful encourages us to read the Bible in large “chunks” – a few chapters at a time. With short readings of three chapters up to long readings of eight chapters, reading in this manner helps us grow in many ways:

1) We begin to see the grand narrative sweep of the Bible which we cannot see when we read just a couple of verses at once.

2) We begin to notice both the similarities and the differences in the various accounts of the faith.

3) Our overall biblical literacy improves.

4) We have the spiritual satisfaction of knowing that we are doing our part to listen to God, we are seeking the truth which sets us free.

Fit & Faithful offers five separate Bible units. Each is 12 weeks long. They vary in length from the 260 chapters of the New Testament in Unit One to the 236 chapters of the Old Testament wisdom literature in Unit Three. Anyone who works diligently through all five units will have – in 60 weeks – read the entire Bible!

Finally – after a lifetime of fits and starts and grand intentions – you will have read the entire Bible!

Fellowship

Contained within the earliest stories in the Bible is the truth that human beings are not made to live in isolation – it is not good that we are alone (Genesis 2:18.) And yet the paradox of our time is that, in an age of mass communication and mass urbanization…when we are surrounded by crowds of people virtually everywhere we go…we have never been so lonely.

Studies have shown that men in particular suffer from the lack of deep friendships and relationships with other men. Often men remember times when they played with other boys in the neighborhood or played on various teams. Fit & Faithful encourages participants to “team up” with others. To set mutual goals, to work together to meet them, and to encourage one another along the way.

The Bible reminds us, in Hebrews 10:24-25, of the value of getting together to encourage and support one another as friends: “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Fit & Faithful assumes that teams – groups of two or more participants – will get together at least once every week or two. It also assumes that participants will also gather for fellowship in weekly worship. And, in those congregations which create congregational programming around building Fit & Faithful groups, everyone will be invited to a monthly team meeting for learning and support.

Service

As Harry Wendt, founder of “Crossways”, often says, “We serve a King who does feet.” The whole point of spirituality, of spiritual growth, is the discovery that God’s love only comes TO us as it flows THROUGH us in acts of love for our neighbor.

Each of us serves God in various ways. Through our daily work, we contribute to the wider good of the world. Through our involvement in volunteer and service activities, we give something back. Through our financial stewardship, we contribute to the health and well-being of others. Through our relationships with other people in our lives, God uses us to touch the world.

Fit & Faithful assumes that, as we diligently seek God in prayer and in his Word, the Spirit will soften our hearts and create new opportunities, and new desires, to serve others.

Each week of the Fit & Faithful workout program provides space for us to record what we have done over the course of the week in service to others. Whatever we choose to record becomes a lasting record, and a visible reminder, of how God is using us to care for the world.