Category Archives: A Fresh Start

This was mentioned above as a method to practice adoration prayer. To use the Bible in prayer is to use God’s own language in our conversation with Him. I have often referred to this practice as the steps that I climb that take me up to the throne of grace. There, I enjoy the presence of my heavenly Father and make my pleas to Him. In a separate chapter, this discipline is elaborated upon.

An influential leader once told me that there is a direct correlation between how I am sleeping and my current state of spiritual development. It made sense. So, I learned to break the Lord’s Prayer into its phrases for use before I sleep. After I’ve said good night to my wife, I begin to practice adoration prayer. I talk with Him and reflect with my Heavenly Father about His greatness and His attributes. Reflecting on His goodness and power and being thankful are wonderful things to have on my mind as I drop off to sleep. He loves and cares for even a wretched sinner like me. What I’ve found is that once I’ve trained myself to do this as my last conscious communication before sleep, I sleep well. Then, when I awake, whether in the middle of the night or in the morning, I reenter this discipline of communicating with my Father in Heaven. When I’ve had occasion to teach this to others, they report that this practice has helped them sleep with more peace.

Prayer is communicating with God. When I need to communicate with my wife, we talk face to face, by phone, by video communication or text message. I am saying things to her and she replies through a variety of means. There are lots of methods to communicate with God. Indeed, in one way or another, all the disciplines are about communicating with God. We can train ourselves to carry on an almost constant conversation with God. This is the idea, I think, behind praying without ceasing. How glorious it is to realize, as C. S. Lewis taught, that I have God’s complete attention because God has unlimited attention! But the main thing to remember is to talk to Him. And listen. So, the Bible is an essential tool for prayer. The old Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication form is a great way to pray.

            Every follower of Jesus needs to be in a community of fellow disciples. This is essential to personal discipleship. To give glory to God through singing, Scripture reading, corporate intercession, expressing generosity, encouraging one another, corporate confession, and being equipped by the biblical preaching of God’s Word, the Bible are aspects of this local church gathering. The local church is also the body that prepares and sends ministers and fosters planting of new churches worldwide. Every disciple of Jesus belongs in a local community of fellow disciples. Disciple making should flow out of the local church.

Set aside an hour. Select twelve disciplines. Practice a discipline for five or so minutes and move on to the next. You may find that this hour flew by and that you are refreshed and strengthened in the Lord. Instead of twelve disciples, you might choose six or nine (or whatever) and repeat some, interspersed through the hour. Imagine how I might grow if I practiced this daily? This would be a great addition to morning devotions on your sabbath. By the way, the hour isn’t a law, you may begin with any length of time and work your way up to an hour or so.

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To give to the needs of others is a principle that is throughout the Bible. It is a way to learn to trust God. As we give away more of our resources, we are forced to rely on God more than on self-dependence.