Spiritual Discipline
In my last post I revealed that up until now I have enjoyed an active lifestyle: hiking, dancing, martial arts, bicycle riding, walking, yoga and group fitness classes. As a child I watched my dad, a disciplined navy man, perform early morning calisthenics on a daily basis in our downstairs play area. I learned from him the importance of routine exercise to stay healthy. Bodily exercising uses concentrated effort to strengthen muscles so when called upon they respond quickly to the mind. The apostle Paul speaks of the value of bodily discipline in 1 Cor. 9:27.
How is spiritual discipline similar and different than bodily discipline? With spiritual discipline we set up mental boundaries that create space for connection with God.
For example:
- When I set aside time to pray, it connects and empowers me with the loving creator of the universe.
- When I worship it opens my heart to experience God’s love and receive radical acceptance from the Holy Spirit. (If you missed it, check out CR Friday Night Live on YouTube, 5/15/2020. It’s all about worship and recovery.)
- When I tithe and give away my resources it connects my soul to humanity and builds bonds of love with others in the community.
- When I meditate, I set aside my goals and schedule and listen to God's love and guidance for my day.
- Lastly when I spend time reading the Bible my mind is transformed. This comes from encountering Jesus in the scriptures and learning healthier ways to think and act. Then because I am in connection with God and supported by others in recovery, I am able to choose beneficial ways of thinking and behaving. And those new behaviors produce positive outcomes instead of continuing to repeat a life full of more hurts, hang ups and destructive habits. This is huge. Our old negative thought patterns can be changed over time with spiritual discipline. Check out Romans 12:2.
Is there anything stopping you from getting spiritually fit today? Share this with a recovery friend.
Announcements:
- If you are in need of prayer, please send your prayer requests to CelebrateRecoveryatCrossroads@gmail.com and we will forward those on to our celebrate recovery prayer team. The Crossroads Church Prayer team would also love to pray for you, so when you send your E-mail, please note if you are okay with us forwarding your prayer request to the church.
- Fridays at 6:30pm, We are hosting "CR Friday Night Live." To subscribe to our youtube channel please click on the following link and select the subscribe button. CR Youtube Channel Link . There will be a song or two of worship and then a short recovery based dialog between a couple of CR members. This will be streamed on youtube.
- Fridays we will be hosting on-line open share group meetings at 7:30pm. There will be one mixed issues group for men and one mixed issues group for women. Men's Open Share Group Sign-Up Link / Women's Open Share Group Sign-Up Link. These meetings will take place using the Zoom App. In order to participate you will need a tablet, smart-phone or computer with camera. In order to ensure confidentiality of these meetings everyone who participates will need to find a private room to set up, have their camera on, so others can see that there is no one else in the room and they will also need to wear a pair of headphones so that they are the only ones that can hear. This is a free app and you can download it on google play, apple app store or through your web-browser on your computer. For help on how to join a Zoom meeting please click on the the following link, which will take you to their support web-site Zoom Set-Up Help
James U.
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