Deep Change: Change Your Habits
How would you spend a day if you knew you are completely loved by God?
Feel our feelings
Face our past
Change Your Habits
I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen.
-Frankenstein’s Monster to Robert Walton
Jesus gives me a relationship with God but my actions are what make me feel close to God.
“The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.” -Tish Harrison Warren
Spiritual Disciplines are any activity that makes me more capable of receiving more of God’s life and power (without harming myself or others)
(Romans 8:11) And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
(Matthew 26:36-41) Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” 37 He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. 38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” 40 Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? 41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
(Matthew 26:51-54) Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. 51 But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear. 52 “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. 53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? 54 But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”
(Matthew 26:56) At that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled.
If we want to act like Jesus did, we have to do what Jesus did.
(Mark 9:28-29) “…Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” 29 Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer (and fasting).”
It just requires certain behaviors ahead of time.
“you couldn’t do what I do publicly because you don’t do what I do privately.”
Grace saves you, but it doesn’t make decisions for you.
So how would your life look if you were actively and perfectly doing these disciplines?
How would you spend a day if you knew you are completely loved by God?
2 things to remember:
1. Spiritual Disciplines are learned not earned.
2. You will get better