HomemadeDisciples

Faith, Discipleship, Family

Spiritual Disciplines In The Christian Life

Spiritual disciplines are habits that help us grow closer to God, increase our faith, and expand our Christian community. These habits help us to connect with God, hear from Him and bless Him. They also help us connect with other people both within our church community and the world around us to fulfill the great commission.

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There’s no end to the lists of Christian habits. Any internet search will reveal a multitude of lists in various orders and categories. But what do you do with the lists? How do you start implementing these habits into your life? And then, how do you teach them to your children?

Throughout this blog series, we’ll look at the various spiritual disciplines. We will ask the questions

  1. What does this look like?
  2. How do I make this my habit?
  3. How do I help my children apply this to their lives?

First things first

There are two things we need to know before we dive into this series of blog posts. First, we need to know the plan for discipleship (this will help our children pick up these habits). Second, we need to know what these habits are.

Know the master plan for discipleship

Though I have an entire post on this (which you can find here), let me summarize it here. The master plan for discipleship consists of 4 parts:

  1. Model – let your children see you modeling spiritual disciplines.
  2. Teach – tell your children what you are doing. Explain why spiritual disciplines matter. Take time to answer their questions and teach them how to make these spiritual choices a habit or discipline.
  3. Invite – bring your kids along with you as you live out these habits. Are you practicing the habit of daily bible reading? Bring your children along and read the bible together!
  4. Send – Give your children a chance to practice spiritual disciplines on their own. If you are practicing prayer, offer them an opportunity to pray on their own. Let your children lead the dinner or bedtime prayer. Empower your children to live out their faith in their own daily lives.

Know the spiritual disciplines

Now that we know the model we will use, what are the habits we should be forming? Spiritual disciplines can be organized in a variety of ways, I’ve chosen 3 categories to place them under.

Inward

These spiritual disciplines are habits that help us grow. Whether we are growing in understanding or faith, these habits stretch us and equip us on our Christian journey. These habits are inward because they focus on us.

Outward

These spiritual disciplines help us engage with our faith communities or the world around us to grow in community and expand God’s kingdom. These habits are outward because they focus on others.

Upward

Though all spiritual disciplines help us connect with God these are solely focused on Him. The upward-focused habits help us bless God.

Now what?

Are you ready to grow? You can start today by answering this question (either on your own or in the comments on this post). What Spiritual Discipline are you most excited to learn about?

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