Partner With Spirit-Led Discipline

Take a moment to imagine you are in college. (If you are currently a college student, this will be a super-easy exercise for you!) But this isn't just any college. At your college, every professor knows your first name. Your school has a fantastic tutoring program. Each class provides study sessions. And the counseling department does a tremendous job helping students thrive. Your school has gone above and beyond to help you not only feel supported emotionally, but to succeed academically.

Now imagine you are failing a class. You are sitting in the cafeteria looking at your laptop, staring at your current grade. As you gawk with shock at the big fat 'F' next to the class name, your academic advisor just happens to walk by. When she notices your expression, she naturally asks if everything is okay. So you share your bad news. As she sits in the chair across from you, what do you think some of her questions might be?

I suspect she will ask questions such as:

• "Have you talked with the professor teaching the class?"
• "Do you have a tutor?"
• "Have you gone to the study sessions?"
• "Are you doing the homework?"
• "How much time each week are you devoting to your class?"

In other words, this kind, caring advisor is inquiring whether or not you have taken advantage of the resources made available to you.

Taking Advantage of God's Resources

As you might expect, I have had various people approach me for counseling. They are struggling in some area of life, so they ask to meet with me, hoping for some sort of pastoral insight and/or prayer. Oftentimes, they feel far from God, wondering if they are "failing" spiritually.

As we talk, I inevitably ask similar questions as your imaginary academic advisor. I may not be asking about tutors and class homework, but I nonetheless inquire whether or not my friend is taking advantage of the resources God has made available to help them in their journey toward holiness.

As we conclude our How To Be Holy series, the last "partner" we are going to look at is the spiritual disciplines. But too often, when I read about spiritual disciplines, I feel like the author is telling me to just buck-up and get after these disciplines through my own will. However, as we've seen previously, holiness will not be achieved through self-effort, but through partnering with others, such as God's grace, God's people, and God's Spirit. That is why I am calling this last "partner" Spirit-led discipline, rather than simply "spiritual disciplines."

If you long for holiness, God has put several tools in your hands that can help hone you into Christlikeness. But these tools are most effective when you ask for God's Spirit to use them effectively in your life. So what are some of these tools?

1. The Bible

God tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that the reason He breathed the Scriptures into existence was for "teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness," so that Jesus-followers may be "equipped for every good work." So let His Spirit use the Scripture to make you more like Jesus.

2. Prayer

In Hebrews 4:16, we are invited to approach God's "throne of grace" with confidence. So let God's Spirit lead you to have a conversation with the One who gives you "mercy and... grace to help in time of need."

3. Confession

We are told in 1 John 1:9 that "if we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" and to make us holy. A powerful way to engage in confession is to confess to a fellow brother or sister in Christ.

4. Fasting

Sometimes we need the reminder that "man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). So set aside a meal, a day of eating, or a certain type of food in order to give more attention and affection to the One who saved your soul.

5. Other disciplines

There are many other disciplines we could talk about, like solitude, journaling, fellowship, silence, rest, worship, and more. The key, though, in any discipline isn't to make it a lifeless duty or a point of personal pride. Rather, the disciplines are to be avenues to let God's Spirit work in us and with us to make us more like Jesus.

So what is one discipline you feel God calling you to "partner" with in this week?