A Disciplined Pursuit of God

Many of us desire a closer connection with our Maker. A few weeks ago, I shared these twelve practices, as habits that we can intentionally develop in order to open up space in our lives to allow God to work in us. Much of this flows from conversations from our recent teen trip to Winterfest.

  1. Prayer — prayer is simply conversation with God. It can be a long, passionate conversation in which we share our hearts deepest hurt & desire, but it can also be a one word, one sentence interaction.
  2. Study — getting God’s word into our heads, paying attention to details, background, culture, expanding our understanding of the text.
  3. Meditation — the process of chewing & savoring God’s word. It’s what helps us get God’s word from our heads into our hearts. It’s not about information, but about transformation. Key word: slow.
  4. Fasting — voluntarily going without something for a period of time, in order to fill up on something more spiritually nutritious. It can be anything from food or a hobby or anything in between.
  5. Silence & Solitude — disconnecting for a brief period of time in order to connect with God.
  6. Simplicity — removing physical, emotional, and spiritual baggage & clutter that keep us from connecting with God & those around us.
  7. Service — finding times to intentional put others’ needs above ours.
  8. Submission — yielding our will to God’s & those whom God has placed in authority. We do this, even when it seems silly or frustrating.
  9. Guidance — accepting help and counsel from wise people & friends.
  10. Confession — acknowledging our sinfulness & deep need for help from God and from others.
  11. Celebration — God has blessed us with incredible things, God has done incredible things in our lives, & has won victory, so we celebrate.
  12. Worship — similar to celebration, worship declares God’s goodness, but it is different than celebration, because we still worship while in the midst of circumstances that don’t seem worth celebrating.

—Brad Schrum

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