Study.

I guess it should be said that proper study is of the Word – our canon of Scriptures. I am not against the reading of other things inspirational, but would not define such as a “discipline.”

Learning styles, I think, dictate how we best study the Word. Not all are good readers, which is a serious restriction on the study of God’s Word, since it is primarily preserved in literary, traditional book form. Fortunately for those who are more auditory and visual, technology is advancing toward them. With the advent of Matthew and Acts on video as well as interactive computer technology, study is getting easier for those who don’t quite fit the traditional learning style.

I need a clean, uncluttered space that is separate from other distractions. Moreover, I am a kinesthetic learner, so that means that I think better when I move. I need a place that accommodates me standing up and walking around if I need to start putting things together in my mind. This is why I walk back and forth on stage so much while preaching. If I’m moving, I’m thinking better.

Another way to keep me focused in this regard is that I write in the margins of the text. I never take notes from other preachers there, but the insight during my study time goes there. It helps me to process what I am reading.

Also, I gravitate toward the Epistles. Someone at Seminary once pointed out that we study and preach from specific areas of Scripture – from those to which we are inclined – unless we force ourselves outside our own proclivities. Some go more to the Old Testament, but most to the New Testament. I think we can go farther than that. In the Old Testament, I see folks gravitating toward the Narratives or the Prophets or even the Wisdom Literature. In the New Testament, I see some focusing on the Gospels and others on the Epistles. Some, of course, are entangled only in the Apocalyptic Literature, which can straddle Old and New Testaments, but fit together in their minds.

As a result of my own pull to the Epistles, I try to force myself to read from the Gospels and from the various writings.

It is amazing to me how my own view of God has become much more systemic as I study. I see Scripture informing itself in many areas and I put it all together in my head. As a result, when I talk about any particular aspect of theology, I will bring in multiple areas of Scripture to address the topic at hand.

While commentaries and other support literature is often helpful, particularly in dealing with those hard to understand phrases, I find that the study of the Word itself to be pretty open and simple, not to mention beneficial. Commentaries rarely “hit home” with me, but sometimes will help me process something. Meanwhile, sometimes the most simple Scripture will cut me to pieces. Why? Because one is Scripture and one is not.

12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.” Heb. 4:12 – HCSB

Finally, I rarely use my Hebrew in study, but will often use my Greek. I always felt more comfortable with Greek and took three years of it – 2 in college and 1 in seminary. At SWBTS, I took Hebrew my first year, and I wasn’t ready for it. Anyway, the language thing helps, when you have it.

Don’t forget to check out the other Spiritual Discipline Bloggers. You can, as always, find them at Joe Kennedy’s blog.

As always, you can check on the updates for others blogging the Spiritual Disciplines at Joe Kennedy’s place.

I agreed to write about fasting for two reasons: 1) I have done it on numerous occasions as part of my Spiritual Journey, and 2) I am terrible at it. I thought you might have the benefit of my many, many bad experiences.

You’ve heard by now that Jesus told His disciples, “When you fast…” – assuming that the disciples would be fasting and therefore we should also fast. I agree with this interpretation whole heartedly. I act on it sporadically.

Let me take a little different slant on this issue from this point on. I am going to write a little tongue in cheek and mock… myself. All of the things I am going to correct have been faults of my own. If they are faults of yours, then watch out.

Prolonged fasting is not a good way to lose weight. It’s not a diet. In fact it is a terrible way to lose weight. Your body realizes that it is not getting what you used to get and then starts working against you, trying to turn whatever it can into fat storage. A good diet is another story, but speaking as one who successfully dropped a lot of weight, try cutting your calories (you have to learn to be a little hungry if you’ve been piggy) and eating three small meals a day. Count your calories and aim for something less than 2,000 per day, on average. Obviously, go see a doctor and get some real medical advice.

Prolonged fasting takes a lot of planning. You need to set up what you will and will not be doing and you need to equip yourself. Again, if you are going into a long term fast – whether 40 days or a couple of days – see a doctor.

Don’t treat it as a spiritual hoop. Your prayers are not more magical and God is not impressed by your will power. I can hear Him now, “Wow, you went all that time without food? Well, I guess I owe it to you to give you what you are asking for…” Yep. I’ve done it this way.

It’s not true that you can’t tell anyone that you are fasting. I had someone tell me this once and I believed it. For years after that I would be tempted to lie or at least be very sneaky about fasting so that no one knew. When Jesus critiqued the Pharisees for standing on the street corner and twisting their faces, He was critiquing their motivation. You can’t wear “fasting” on your sleeve as a mark of spiritual oneupmanship. You can let key people in on what you are doing.

In fact, you should let key people in on what you are doing. I would never fast without my staff and my family knowing. Someone calls for a lunch appointment and my secretary simply says, “I’m sorry, but he isn’t available for lunch this week.” How easy is that? The rest of the staff would know so that they wouldn’t try to get me to go eat. We eat with each other quite a bit, so this would be necessary. It’s all about motive.

You don’t just have to fast from food. In fact, some folks, such as diabetics, should probably never do that. You can fast from tv, the internet, music, golf, guitar, or even blogging. Yes. All my time gobblers are right there in that list.

Finally, you should really understand what fasting is. You substitute the time you would be spending on what you give up in prayer and communion with God. That’s pretty much it. As I said, it is not a bargaining chip with God, so there is no other reason to do it.

Let me flip that and maybe it will make more sense. If you are giving up stuff but then giving the time you save to other stuff, then your fasting has benefited the role of other lesser stuff in your life. In effect, you have fasted for tv, or wherever you spend that time. Isn’t that something akin to idolatry? Isn’t that idolatry? Oh, yes. I’m guilty. That’s how I know.

If you fast, you should be spending the time you save in prayer. The goal of fasting is more time with God, and for my thoughts on that, see last week’s article.

Check out Joe Kennedy’s blog for the list of those blogging the Spiritual Disciplines.

Prayer is communication with God, and as such is a two way street. It is as much about listening as it is about speaking. In order to listen, you have to first have the Holy Spirit (Romans 8 ) and then you have to intentionally listen to the Holy Spirit.

Listening is hard because we are such tactile folks. If we can’t see, touch, smell, taste or physically hear something, it is hard to learn how to listen to it. We don’t see ourselves as spiritual beings or dealing with spiritual entities, and because we don’t see it, we rarely do it and because we rarely do it, we aren’t very good at it.

Frankly, it takes practice to be a listener to the Holy Spirit.

Practically, though, it takes a place where distraction is minimal. People are built differently, so that place is different for everyone. Some people find the outdoors inspirational while others are distracted by discomfort and, well, animals, people and whatever else is moving around.

For me, I enjoy a secluded and moderately air conditioned environment. Not too hot, nor too cold. The environment is an easy distraction for me and I like to eliminate it. Also, I am easily distracted by virtually anything that is not present that is intended to point me toward God. If a computer is in the room, I will habitually turn towards it and check for email, etc. This is why I don’t attempt to spend my designated prayer time with anything other than an empty room with my ipod playing some worship stuff, or just my journal.

Speaking of my journal, I know that journaling is coming up next week, but my journal is a big part of my prayer time. I write out my prayers. Not the whole thing, word for word, but general ideas that I speak from. By writing out my prayers I am doing two things.

First, I am listening. Yeah, back to that. I listen to the Holy Spirit lead me through the subjects of my prayers and I write down what I sense He says to me, section by section (more on the sections in a minute). Then I pray them through pretty diligently because I am focused.

That’s the second thing I am doing by writing – staying on task. Maybe I am a product of my generation or maybe something is wrong with me, but if I don’t have my prayers written out, then I tend to wander in my mind. The next thing I know, I am thinking about who knows what and my “effectual and fervent prayer” is somewhere else. I know that God doesn’t do this, but I can just picture Him waving to me: Aaarrrrt (in a sing song voice), I’m over heeeerrrree.

Also, the routine of regularly praying helps me focus my mind. It is apparent to most that regularly praying washes the mind in the presence of God and when combined with Bible Study, which I think it should be and is with me, I am washed in the Word. Made sensitive to the Spirit through Prayer, the Word instructs me and shapes me. They all go together, these disciplines.

The sections. Many of you will have heard this before, so I won’t break it down like it is new, but I follow the Isaiah 6 model of back and forth: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication and then Intercession. I break supplication into two parts: supplication and intercession. The first about me – my character and it being conformed to the image of Christ, and the second about the stuff that I and others need from God.

Obviously, the last part is the only part most of us do. I still do it sometimes. It’s like taking a grocery list to the grocer, leaving it for him to fill and then coming back to pick it up later. We put God in the position of our servant which is diabolical, since it is He who is the Master and we who are the servants.

What do you do? What makes your prayer time really work? Can you pray outside? Do you have a place where you always go to pray?

Joe Kennedy sent me an invitation to join a group of bloggers that were going to be blogging the spiritual disciplines on Tuesdays starting today with introductions.

First, I won’t be blogging all of the disciplines, but Joe will be posting a weekly rundown on those who are posting every Tuesday for a few months.

Here’s the list:

Introduction
Meditation
Prayer
Fasting
Study
Journaling
Simplicity
Silence
Solitude
Submission
Service
Confession
Worship
Guidance
Celebration
Conclusion

Pretty long, huh? 16 weeks of hardcore spiritual challenges.

Truth is, I may need this more for myself than anyone that benefits from what I write. I used to be very disciplined, spiritually. I carved out time for God every day, no matter what, but that was the beginning. It got much deeper than that for me.

As time passed, my life started catching up with me. I got married, had kids, started full time staff ministry instead of the flexible stuff I had done for a while, like Youth Evangelism. Now I’m a pastor with a special prayer study built in my church’s facility – albeit without reasonable air conditioning – and I am so busy I can’t get in there.

It is past time for me to start saying “no” to some things and start saying “yes” to my growth in God.

There was a time when a man told me something that shaped me spiritually. Although I have not lived up to this as well as I could lately, it is still my heart’s desire and the mental picture of myself when I am spiritually healthy. He told me that if I would take care of the depth of my life, God would take care of the breadth of my life. That is to say, focus on growing in God, and God will handle all of the things that clamor for your attention, but that you can’t possibly cover in total.

I spend all my time trying to keep up with things I can’t possibly catch and time to grow spiritually slips away.

Well, back to it, then.

Let me say one profound thing, before taking off for Youth Camp on Monday. (I am writing this on Friday night and setting it to drop on Tuesday morning.)

The disciplines are about true rest. If you are truly participating in the disciplines listed above, you will find yourself rested in ways that you would never have guessed.

When we say we want to rest, what we really do is substitute things that do not refresh for what truly refreshes. Now, I know I am about to start sounding like John Piper here, so don’t think I am plagiarizing. I give him credit for shaping me through “Desiring God.”

The reward of finding God that comes from the pursuit of God is that which truly satisfies. The poor substitutes are the obvious: tv, xbox, surfing the blogs, golf, guitar, photography or whatever happens to be your hobby of the moment. Whatever burns your time with “no real demands on you.” Boy, is that a foolish standard. You seek rest in something that promises not to tax you further. The tragedy is that it so often does.

The next group is slightly more stealthy: vacations, weekends, fellowships at church, supper with friends. These things actually tend to offer something restorative, but when you are done, aren’t you always more tired than when you started?

The final group is the ultimate deception: Quiet Times, Worship services, Sunday School, Bible Studies, Devotional Books, Theological Books, Books and more Books – or audio/video sermons by preachers of whom you think highly. These actually rob you when you 1) approach them legalistically or 2) view them as an ends in themselves instead of means to an end. In other words, their potential benefit is short-circuited.

Obviously, legalism is something that hollows you out, spiritually. Scripture is replete with its exposure as a robber of goodness. In itself, it views the disciplines as means to an end – that end being worldly prominence among spiritual people. Wrong end.

The end in itself view fails to see a personal interaction with God as the ultimate end. How is this not legalism? It is mere shortsightedness.

When I was a young man, I loved God with everything I had. I just didn’t have much and wasn’t getting much. Nevertheless, I did spend time with Him, but because I was supposed to, not because I loved being with God and He restored my soul in that time. It was time with God, but it was out of a sense of “rightness.” I didn’t think I “had” to do it. I didn’t think I would impress God and didn’t really know enough to realize that I might try to impress others with a false depth. Rather, I read the Word and thought about God and then moved on.

This is where the 5 minute “Quiet Times” come in. You can have a QT for 5 mins if you aren’t pursuing God, but are “simply” doing what you should.

Think I’m splitting hairs?

Maybe I am, but I see a difference in the motivation and expectation of the one over the other.

Obviously, spiritual growth, or depth, is refreshing on levels that can’t be measured in any other qualitative way than for the child of God to know peace. Peace that passes understanding. Peace that comes from a sense of His presence.

Real peace. Real renewal. Real rest. Real discipline.