A Christian's Need for Spiritual Habits Pt. 1

As we prepare for the upcoming Re:New Seminar on Spiritual Disciplines (or Habits), I wanted to share some preliminary thoughts to frame our time together. Topics like spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices can sound very antiquated for our moden ears. We are used to seeing seminars, classes and sermons on more relevant topics like “10 Ways to Raise Godly Children” or “How to Have a Successful Christian Marriage”. But in these next couple of blogs I want to make a case for the importance of spiritual habits in the life of every Christ follower.

Seeing Through the Right Lenses

During one of my early dates with Lyndsay, I was driving to the mall. At the time, I did not regularly wear glasses while driving. Noticing that I wore glasses sometimes but not this particular time, Lyndsay asked me if I could see the road signs. I answered yes. While technically that was true, I admitted later in the drive that while I could see the signs, the letters on them were blurry. Panic ensued and threats followed and long story short, I now wear glasses every time I drive.

If you are like me and need glasses to see, then you realize that having the right powered lenses makes all the difference in the world.

In the same way, I believe we can develop a healthy appreciation of spiritual habits, if we look at it through the right lens. And for that, we have to start at the beginning of the Bible.

In the Beginning

In Genesis 1, we see that God created a beautiful world that was brimming with life. And to care for this part of his world, he creates humans, who were made in his image. As man and woman, they were to be God's partners & representatives and rule over the earth and all the creatures in it. (Gen 1:27-28)

When you closely study the first pages of Genesis, you realize that the Garden of Eden was actually God's first temple on earth. Subsequent temple structures had very similar imagery to the Garden of Eden. God settles into Eden along with man and the rest of creation and is in close fellowship with them. And in this temple, humans had full access to God. And God had full access to humans.

Since God created the Earth, He knew the best way to care for it. For this reason, He would give Adam and Eve clear instructions on how to do so. And he would do it with them.

But man decides to take matters in his own hands and rule based on his own limited wisdom. He tries to seize control over the world that God had given them to rule. The effects are tragic. The most severe impact of man's disobedience is his separation from God, both physically and spiritually.

Following this separation, God sets out on a mission to restore this union with man, to bring us back to him.

Throughout the rest of the scriptures, including the incarnation of Jesus, we see God’s plan revealed to unite man with Himself, just like they were in Eden. I want to highlight some major markers of this pursuit by God.

The Tabernacle and Temple

The Tabernacle is where the first reunion between Heaven and Earth took place. This makeshift Temple was designed for God to dwell with the Israelites in the wilderness. After they entered into the Promised Land, God set out clear instructions for a more permanent structure, which was the Temple.

Both in the Tabernacle and Temple, animal sacrifices were used to atone, in part, for the sin of mankind. This created a holy space where Heaven and earth could meet and God could dwell with His people. In each of these iterations, God designed a place where He could reside and where the high priests had to take the utmost care and precaution before entering.

Jesus

Temples and animal sacrifices were only a temporary solution for reuniting Heaven and Earth. God's permanent solution was His son, Jesus Christ. Jesus's life and ministry, showed us God's heart and plan for humanity. He wanted to live alongside man. And to accomplish that He sent His Son to be a sufficient sacrifice that could bridge the vast separation between God and man. Jesus also came to model for us how we must live in relationship with God and one another.

Jesus preached that He was the entry into God's kingdom. He displayed God's love and heart for his creation. He wanted every person to be part of this rescue mission. So, after His life, ministry, death & resurrection, He left us with a plan to follow His example and continue to grow God’s Kingdom.

In the closing verses of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commands His disciples to go and spread the good news of God's rule on earth and make more disciples who will choose to live in submission and under the rule of Yahweh.

And he continues by telling them to teach these disciples to faithfully obey God's commands.

Becoming Like Jesus

The conclusion is this: To become like Jesus we must be His disciples.

Discipleship to Jesus is not a curriculum, program, or mentor. Discipleship to Jesus is the reorientation of our life to becoming like Jesus. This reorientation includes our rhythms of life, habits and routines.

Becoming like Jesus means doing the activities that Jesus did himself and taught his disciples to do. And those activities form the core of what we today call Spiritual Habits or Spiritual Disciplines.

All throughout Jesus’ life and ministry He practiced, we see activities like fasting, prayer, solitude, silence, celebration, and serving. If Jesus felt the need to practice these, how much more should we adopt them in our growth as his disciples?

Spiritual Habits Are the Backbone to Discipleship

So, if Discipleship is the blueprint to Christ-likeness, then spiritual habits are the backbone to Christian discipleship. No serious Christian should neglect these practices that were practiced not only by Jesus, but by his disciples, the apostles, the early church and by christians all throughout the church’s history. It is only in the modern, Western church that these activities have fallen out of favor.

It is not a coincidence, that “Consumer Chrisitanity” is rampant throughout the modern christian church as an unfortunate end result. Even well meaning Christians flounder in their walk because they are not equipped to develop the practices that enable them to become like Jesus in their character.

To wrap our heads around what the Christ follower must become, we can look at how Paul describes the “New Man” in Colossians 3. Here Paul describes that this New Man (or Woman) is someone who has put off their old way of life and put on a new way of life. And this new way of life is permeated by a christ-likeness.

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:12-15 (ESV)

In reading that, you might think that it is impossible for a sinful human being to do what Paul is asking of his audience. What if I told you that, by the grace of God, this christ-likeness is an attainable goal for every christian. This then raises the question of how one can become this person that is like Jesus and that is described by Paul in Colossians 3? A Christian whose mind is set on Christ and is holy, loving, compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient and forgiving.

I hope this was a helpful framing for the importance of spiritual habits. In the next post, I will say more about the practical importance of spiritual habits.

We will explore more of this topic during our time together at our upcoming Re:New Seminar on Saturday, March 20th. You can register for this free seminar HERE!

- Written by Redeemer Church Elder Stanley John