Honestly, after the last few years, there's hardly anything I'm still certain of. There are a few things I’m still sure of, of course – I know that God is still on His throne, that I still love memes, and that pizza is still amazing. But I know that in 2022, I’ve got to hold on to what I know for sure. One other thing I know for sure is that there are a lot of things that don’t happen by accident in this life. For example, I’m probably not going to sprout six-pack abs on accident. It would take a lot of attention and being intentional about what I eat and how I exercise, of course (and probably a true miracle from Heaven haha). Getting a college degree doesn't happen by accident. There are a lot of things that you don't just fall into. In the same way, growing with God doesn’t happen on accident. You don’t wake up one day and find that your faith is just incredibly strong. (Maybe you do, actually - but I certainly don't!) After years of practicing faith, I know it just doesn’t work like that. Spiritual growth takes a lot of practice, intention, and attention over time. At the beginning of a new year, I hear a lot of people who want to resolve to have a better relationship with God this year. “I want to be stronger in my faith this year” is something I've already heard a lot. That’s an amazing goal – one of the best goals you could make, in my opinion! I hope that all of us would have that goal this year. But just like any other goal, some effort is required to get you there. Our faith doesn’t grow on accident. 1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV) says this: “...physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Personally, I'm partial to the MSG paraphrase:
“Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.” If you want to grow in your faith this year, the solution is pretty simple: practice. If you want to grow at anything or get good at anything – whether it’s basketball or competitive eating or Fortnite or makeup - you have to practice. That’s how humans grow. When it comes to faith, we have certain key things that we can PRACTICE every day that can grow us. They’re literally called spiritual practices. Over the years they’ve had many different names – sometimes called spiritual disciplines (while I personally love the word discipline, it tends to have some negative connotations in the next generation). To be honest with you, you’re really not going to find any specific verse in the Bible that says: "here are the five spiritual practices you should do every day to grow with God." But, when we study the life and the rhythms and teachings and the habits of Jesus in the gospels, we can learn a lot about the things that he did every day that helped him to grow with God. In Jesus’s most famous sermon, at the end he says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:28 NIV) Jesus said that if you want to grow in faith, you have to actually practice the things He said to do, and the things He did, such as getting away to be in solitude and silence, praying, worshiping, knowing the Scriptures inside and out, and so on. He's recorded as practicing these things all the time. When we practice these things, they help us grow with God, help us get in tune with God’s spirit, help us heal emotionally, and help us have room to grow spiritually. But here's what church culture has often gotten wrong about spiritual disciplines: they're not the point. I spent a lot of my life thinking they were the whole point. The point is to grow with God and know God and be aware of God and live a full life of love and joy and peace with God. Spiritual habits are just a means to an end. The point of your day is not to wake up and read your Bible to check it off the list, or pray to check it off your list. I know a lot of people who read their Bibles every day and aren't growing with God or being deeply formed by Him. (But that's for another post...) The point has to be: “I want to know God more today, because I love Him, so I’m going to commit to this habit because I know it will help me to grow with God and be with Him today.” In fact, these habits are never commanded by Jesus (with the only exception being prayer, which is commanded a few times). Jesus doesn’t command you to wake up in the morning and have your 'quiet time' and read your Bible or live in community with others. But He did all of those things and lived them. They were His habits. And the command He actually gave was, “Follow me.” Do what I do. Walk in my ways. Spiritual habits aren’t meant to be like unrealistic routines that weigh you down and crush you (as the Pharisees often portrayed). These habits are supposed to bring us life! We don’t pray so that God will love us more. We don’t read the Bible to impress God or others. We don’t worship or go to church on Sunday to check something off our list, or to "get us a ticket to Heaven." That’s not how any of this works. God doesn’t love us because of what we do, He loves us because of who He is. Spiritual practices are the building blocks of faith that can help us grow closer to God and love Him more, but what they will not do is 'make you a good person' or make God love you more - as I thought for a long time. You can’t do anything today that will make God love you any more or any less. In Matthew 11:29-30 (MSG) Jesus says, “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” When we practice the things Jesus did, we can live freely and lightly. Practicing these habits and walking the way Jesus did is what leads to a life that is free and light. Some of us wouldn’t recognize ourselves if we could live 'free and light' for one week. But this is really the life Jesus promises. A lot of days, to be honest, I don’t always feel like doing these habits. But when I do, it feels like my whole world just gets a breath of fresh air that I didn’t even realize I so desperately needed. Ephesians tells us that faith is a gift from God, and that's so true. But we’re the ones who either choose to receive the gift of faith and put it into practice, or we don’t. The habits of Jesus like prayer, silence, knowing our Scripture, and just being with God – these are the best things we could commit to doing this year. I'd love to know - which one of these habits comes easiest for you? Which ones do you have to work at?
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