Teachability

teachability: to remain a lifelong learner who is continually open to the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit

• an appropriate openness to new ideas, opinions, styles, people
• curbing the know-it-all attitude
• asking questions that lead to deeper God awareness
• listening more, talking less
• refraining from snap judgments
• openness to the Holy Spirit’s doing a new thing
• becoming aware of hardness of heart and unwillingness to love and grow
• the ability to say, “I’m sorry. I messed up.”… realizing you don’t have everything figured out all the time
• freedom from attachment to your opinions, your words, your authority

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.

Gratitude

gratitude: to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to live with a grateful heart, cognizant of God’s work in my life and my abundant resources; a loving and thankful response toward God for his presence with us and within this world; though “blessings” can move us into gratitude, it is not at the root of a thankful heart; delighting in God and his good will is the heartbeat of thankfulness

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” –Phillipians 4:6-7

• When you feel at the bottom of the food chain and dead last in terms of priority, how do you move toward gratitude?
• When have you found that in retrospect you could have been thankful for something that you were not grateful for at the time it was happening?
• How has someone who lives out of bitterness affected your life?
• How is our culture addicted to criticism, analysis, and negativity? How might thankfulness be an antidote to a critical spirit?

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.

Chastity

chastity: to revere God by receiving and honoring my body and the bodies of others with purity of thought and action; healthy chastity is rooted in a deep acceptance of, respect for, and protection of the glorious body God has given you and all other humans; chaste behavior cultivates sexual purity and nourishes trust

“No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.” –Ephesians 5:29-33

• Who have been your examples of healthy sexuality and relationships? What have they taught you?
• How have unhealthy models for sexuality influenced or harmed our culture?
• Read Psalm 139:13-16. What is David’s opinion of his body? What is God’s view of the body? What is your own view of your body?
• How is the way one views the body linked to the ability to be chaste?
  

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.

Accountability Partner

accountability partner: to give a regular and honest account of one’s choices, priorities, and temptations to a godly and wise companion who points one to Christ

• authentic self-revelation and confession
• giving and receiving correction and input
• praying for one another
• contacting one another in times of temptation and need
• loving the truth and living in freedom
• experiencing God’s love and forgiveness more fully through the love and acceptance of a faithful friend
• being aware of how denial, rationalization, and blame take over your life when left to your own self-assessment
• being free from pretense and dishonesty
• being humble
• having appropriate interdependence, self-disclosure, and trust

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.

Fasting

fasting: to let go of an appetite in order to seek God on matters of deep concern for others, myself, and the world; the self-denial of normal necessities in order to intentionally attend to God in prayer; bringing attachments and cravings to the surface opens a place for prayer and is the reminder to turn to Jesus, who alone can satisfy

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

–Isaiah 58:6-9

When you feel empty or restless, what do you do to try to fill the emptiness?


What is your attitude toward fasting or self-denial?

In what ways do you currently deny yourself?

For a period of one week, try fasting from media, sports, shopping, reading, or use of the computer. Dedicate the time you now have to God. What feelings arise in you? What thoughts interrupt your prayer?

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.

Retreat

retreat: to make space in my life for God alone; specific and regular times apart for quietly listening to God and delighting in his company; retreats remove us from the daily battle into times of refreshing, retooling, renewing, and unwinding

“Spiritual disciplines are means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. It means some where you’re not occupied and you’re certainly not preoccupied. It means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned on or counted on.” –Henri Nouwen

• What makes it difficult for you to get away with God?
• How does simply being with God sound to you?
  
• How do doing and being fit together in your spiritual journey?

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.

Unity

unity: to live in harmony with Christ’s desire for the church to be one; to be a bridge-builder and peacemaker in the body of Christ; the mark that demonstrates to the world that the body of Christ is one organism, with one faith, one hope, one baptism, and one God and Father of all; lives out the reality that Christ has already reconciled all things to himself, so in him we belong to one another

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” –John 17:21 (NLT)

• Are there fellow believers you would rather prove wrong than accept as brother or sister? What does that tell you about your heart?
• When have you experienced a unity of reconciliation that is supernatural? What was that like for you?
• How does competition among churches affect unity?

This is one in a series of posts I have created on the spiritual disciplines. All of the photography is original (i.e., by me) and has a creative commons copyright for which you may have permission to download and use each photo for noncommercial purposes only. The text for each post contains information from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, by Calhoun AA. This book is an excellent resource that contains clear, concise chapters for each discipline, from which I have adapted the definitions and a portion of the reflection questions contained in each post. For more detailed descriptions and practical suggestions on each discipline, I would highly recommended reading the book.