2. Connect With God

The Big Idea: The spiritual disciplines and training of a disciple of Jesus.  

The road to becoming a couch potato is paved with good intentions. “I’m going to bike to work every day this year…” Or maybe until the first really wet day. “I just bought a gym pass!” But maybe the number of times you went this month made it less of a good deal than you hoped.

“Train yourself to be godly. For 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” (1 Tim 4:7-8).

The Greek word for “train” in this verse means to work out naked! A little shocking, and I don’t recommend this at your local gym, but spiritually the idea is to cast off everything that gets in the way of your training. It's like Jesus saying to pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin (Matt 5:29-30), or the writer of Hebrews telling us to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" (Heb 12:1).

Jesus talks about staying connected to him like branches on a vine, and he also says, “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2). The gardener carefully trims the “suckers” – shoots that use up the branch’s nutrients but bear only leaves, no fruit.

Spiritual training requires both effort and faith! It is time to go beyond good intentions! Here are the spiritual disciplines that are listed in the book:

• Worship
• Prayer
• Confession
• Interpretation
• Meditation
• Solitude
• Stewardship
• Speaking and serving
• Testimony
• Submission
• Guidance
• Endurance

Please post your thoughts on these questions in the "Comments" box below. You will need to sign in with a Google or other account to do so.

1. What gets in the way of your spiritual training? What uses up your time and resources but does not produce eternal results?
2. Which of these spiritual disciplines do you have in place already? Are you happy with your consistency and progress?
3. Which spiritual disciplines will you kick-start in preparation for ministry this summer?