They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42).
Practice is what we do regularly to develop a particular way of being. Early Christians devoted themselves to prayer. That is, they regularly engaged in the practice of prayer. In a later post I will discuss the merits of this practice, but for now let’s notice that we have examples of early Christians engaging in spiritual disciplines that formed them (I say this because someone may object to what they think is an attempt to engage in Catholic practices).
These practices are not an end in themselves. We do not pray or fast or spend time in solitude simply for that experience. Nor do we engage in these practices for the purpose of being able to do more or do better. Spiritual disciplines are not about doing but about being. Jesus reminded us that whatever we are inside will demonstrate itself in what we do. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit (Matt. 12:33).
All of the practices we engage in are for the purpose of forming us into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). They are exercises that help us to discover our bad motives, hidden anger, and self-seeking attitudes. Once exposed, all of these nasty things that are inside of us (which we have suppressed in our busyness) can now be given to God. We can confess and repent of them. These exercises help us to get empty so that God’s Spirit has room to work.
Some of these exercises are done alone, and some must be done with others. As demonstrated by Jesus, there is a time to be alone with God (Lk. 5:16). However, there is also a time to be formed in the company of others. There is a reason that we have this thing called “church”. The church is simply a collection of people engaged in the practice of collectively becoming the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). The notion of someone being a Christian by themselves is an unknown phenomenon in the Bible. We are reminded that the apostle Paul said that Jesus gave himself up for the church (Eph. 5:25).
Finally, we must remember that these practices are not for ourselves alone, but also for others. The most famous Christians ascetic, St. Antony, practiced spiritual disciplines for the church, not simply for his own well being. In this he was imitating Christ. Jesus did not go off by himself to pray just so he could be the person God wanted him to be (although that was certainly a part of it). He did it so that he would have a deep well that others could draw from.
This post is part of a series on Spiritual Formation. To begin reading the first post go here.
I agree spiritual formation is changing to be more like Christ. However, this is not something we can accomplished with a check list, instead we can only accomplished transformation when we acknowledged our dependence on the Spirit of God. Therefore we can only be transform by our willingness to surrenders our dependence on God. Great article!
Sereta,
Thanks for the comment. You are absolutely right about the need for dependence on God. I began this series of articles speaking about Grace. I did so because some imagine that the practice of spiritual disciplines somehow runs against the notion of salvation by grace. However, what I am talking about is analogous to being a gifted athlete like Usain Bolt. This man has clearly been given a gift (grace) from God. However, it is up to him to discipline himself and refine that gift. In contrast, it doesn’t matter how much I train, I don’t have the gift for speed. In the same way, God has gifted each of us with life, and if we accept it, we can hone that gift through our disciplines.