O God, my God! How I search for you! How I thirst for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. How I long to find you! Psalm 63:1
O God, my God! How I search for you! How I thirst for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. How I long to find you! Psalm 63:1
We are more than halfway through the Lenten season. Although I intended to write on a different topic this week, I was compelled to set that aside and share something much more pressing on my heart. My prayer is that it stirs something deep within you—something that encourages you to press on into the race set before you, with determination to finish well by relying on the Holy Spirit within you and on trusted, reliable teachers who spur you on and correct your course as necessary, with the hope that you too may one day become a trusted, reliable teacher for those seeking to learn more about walking in the ways of Jesus. That you would be able to lovingly guide them in the way of truth and love.
Let me give you a bit of background as to why I am so very passionate about spiritual formation and practices or disciplines that, as Leon would say, “set the table for people to encounter God.” That is what Encounter Ministry is all about! That is what sets my heart ablaze for my brothers and sisters in Christ—that they would encounter the Living God not just in their minds and intellect, but in their hearts, with their whole being! To actually know Him and have a deeper walk and relationship with Him—not just know about Him in one area of their lives, but for that knowledge to infuse every fiber of their being, transforming the way they live out their redeemed lives, just as it did for the people of the Way we read about in Acts, the early church leaders, and the faithful through all the generations until this very day.
During the pandemic, a few of us embarked on a journey through all the books of the prophets. Much of what we studied was very sobering, but woven throughout all of these books was God’s invitation for His people to come back to Him with their whole hearts. I believe His Spirit is speaking the same thing to our generation. God is calling His people back to Himself, calling them to set aside their attachments and pursue Him with their whole heart, mind, body, and soul. This process is called “renunciation,” which is simply the ancient spiritual practice of setting aside a lesser love for a time—like the Lenten season—to awaken and pursue a deeper desire for the eternal love of God.
I have heard some say that engaging in these ancient practices is like scrounging around in a dumpster to find our meal. I would counter that even in Jesus’ day, He and a number of the practices He modeled were discarded by the religious elite. Jesus warned them that their precious establishments would come to ruin, and the true church would be built on the “Rock” the builders had rejected. And with some of these very practices and disciplines of spiritual formation, there are countless examples one can Google where precious treasures have been discovered in a dumpster. How much more valuable is a vibrant life with our Beloved—the One who loves our body, soul, mind, and heart?
I have heard some say that these ancient disciplines and practices are nothing more than Catholic rituals. Firstly, they are not simply practices of the Catholic Church. In fact, many churches embrace and engage in ancient spiritual practices and disciplines as part of their regular spiritual formation process. Evangelicals (including a number of our Alliance churches), Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Presbyterians all encourage engagement as a way to set the table for their people to come and feast on the Lord. Engaging in the practices themselves is not the end goal, but they can be a means to help us prepare our hearts to encounter Jesus in deeper ways. They can aid us in the process of sanctification, discipling us and training us to be His people in a world that so desperately needs hope.
Sadly, much of the church of our age is disillusioned with the “Christian life” and the relevance it has in the world in which we live. I think this is because people cannot see a difference between those who call themselves Christians and the society in which they live. We have begun to lose our impact because we have lost our first love and traded it for lesser things.
The ancient practices of the people of God were instilled throughout Scripture to help God’s people know His character and His love for them, as well as how to live that out in the world—bringing heaven to earth. Even Jesus, who was God incarnate, faithfully followed and fulfilled the statutes of the Jewish law and edicts handed down to Moses on Sinai. During His life, He modeled for us practices and disciplines to pattern our lives after. These are the practices the early church leaders and the church fathers and mothers modeled and taught to those coming behind them. Things like:
• Developing a daily rhythm of prayer
• Taking an honest inventory of our lives and the forces influencing them
• Reading Scripture daily
• Reinstating the practice of Sabbath in our lives
• Intentionally meeting and inviting God into our pain and suffering
• Practicing sincere confession with God and one another, as described in James 5
• Developing a Regula Vitae (a rhythm of life) that supports our growth and responsibility of working out our faith as God’s holy people—the practice of sanctification we are invited to actively engage in
• Intentionally being part of a community that will walk with us closer to the heart of God
These are the very things we are learning about and are encouraged to put into practice through the “Practicing the Way” course. To me, this is the “how” of true discipleship—growing to become more like Jesus.
As a caution, when I reflect on this list, I think it is important to say that if our heart isn’t in it—if our heart is not hungry and inclined toward more of Jesus—then yes, these practices and disciplines are merely “empty rituals.” They may help us feel good about ourselves and what we are doing, but without the engagement of our hearts, minds, and bodies, we remain in our dry and parched land—thirsting, hungering, and grasping for something to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger for relevance and purpose, far from God’s intent and best for us.
To bring this to a close, I have a couple of questions for you. How is this Lenten season going for you? Have you engaged in the practice of renunciation, even in a small way? Did you start and then abandon the endeavor because it felt like little more than the agony of denial—going without something that once satisfied you? It’s alright—don’t lose heart!
I want to encourage you to revisit, return, and pick up where you left off. Over time, by pressing in, you will discover the deeper hunger of your soul—the true longing that only Jesus can and will fill. It is in this place of releasing the things we hold tightly to, letting go of our dependence on them, that we learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, who offers us living water—water that truly satisfies our souls.
If you are not already following a reading plan, I would encourage you to begin—even during the week before Easter, Passion Week. Here is an excellent daily Scripture reading that will walk you through the recorded final week of Jesus’ life on earth. I encourage you to immerse yourself in the passages, asking the Holy Spirit to bring them to life for you. Pause and notice— is there something the Spirit is drawing to your attention? Sit with it, reflect on it, and have a conversation with God about it. What is the spiritual food and living water He is inviting you to taste and see?
Fondly,
Melody
