Discipline of Confession
It’s not quite the most attractive of the disciplines but it is just as powerful. Confession is naming where we are and what we’ve done. It is unguarded truth-telling. Its unguarded because we know who we’re confessing to. When we know God to be eager and ready to forgive, we can approach him with anything we may be carrying. In confession, we’re released from the pressure to pose, to hide in shame, and we receive the forgiveness of Jesus. His forgiveness is immediate; he takes our sins, hides it, and forgets about it. The goal of all confession, whether it’s confession to God or to one another, is healing. This kind of healing-nourishment results in what Psalm 32 calls, true happiness. The more regular this practice becomes in our journey, the more confident we are in Jesus’ loving and transformative power.
Discipline of Celebration
Considered alongside other disciplines like prayer, worship or confession for example, celebration may seem incongruous. However celebration is integral to the christian life. After all the gospel begins with celebration, ends with celebration and has celebration at its heart: Jesus’ kingdom is one built on the foundations of the Old Testament concept of Jubilee. The gospel literally means good news, and good news must be celebrated. So how do we become more joyful people? Paul gives us three steps on the path to celebration - doing away with anxiety, presenting our requests to god, and fixing our hearts and minds on the beauty of our world. Despite all the trouble we may have in this world, joy is the hallmark of those who have placed their lives in the hands of good God who comes to bring good gifts to his children.
Discipline of Meditation
Ever heard a talk on how to meditate in church before? Us neither. But the crossover between what the science says about mindful meditation being brilliant for our brains, stress-levels, focus, memory sleep patterns and approximately a zillion other things, and the way we - in the spirit-filled church - prepare our minds, bodies and souls to experience the holy spirit, seems like a weirdly undiscussed marriage. And Jesus did make it quite clear that the spirit was the one who was going to show us how to do this whole christian thing. So let’s talk about it.
Discipline of Prayer
It’s hard to overestimate quite how foundational prayer is to our spiritual health and connection to god, yet in reality many find prayer very difficult. But when we see prayer as Jesus did - a means of partnering with, hearing from and experiencing the intimacy of our Father - prayer is transformed into a life-giving, exciting, joyful, essential pursuit. Prayer’s goal becomes not what Jesus can do for us, but Jesus himself.
Introducing the Spiritual Disciplines
Many have grown up with the Christian faith being represented as one long slog of discipline - Do this, Don’t do that, Try harder, Be better. This is not what the Spiritual Disciplines are about at all. Rather they are tools in the spiritual tool kit God gives us. Their job is to place us in a position to receive more of God’s grace directly from him. It is only ever grace that changes us. The two most common method for trying to overcome our old sinful nature are both equally flawed: either we rely solely on their will power, or we remain passive and hope for the best. By contrast the Spiritual Disciplines involve our wills - we have to choose to engage with them, but they rely entirely on God’s grace to change us. They are the keys to how we mature in our faith, becoming better people, and come closer to Jesus.