Re:Verse passage – John 15:6–10; Hebrews 12:10; Acts 13:2–3; Colossians 4:2–4 (day four) 

Practicing spiritual disciplines can sound daunting. For one, the word “discipline” implies that there’s some effort on our part we will find challenging. The spiritual disciplines can also start to sound like a to-do list for our spiritual life, or the criteria for making an A+ with God. When we view them this way, we might have moments of motivation where we feel we can surely master them all, and we set out to do so only to find that our motivation is short lived and you’re not entirely sure how to go about some of them.

But this isn’t the biblical vision of the spiritual disciplines. Rather, the disciplines are more like a trellis, a structure that the ivy hangs onto as it grows, forming its path. The spiritual disciplines are the form, structure, and anchor points that we hang on to as we grow, seeking to become more like Christ. Prayer and Scripture reading, fasting and celebrating, service and solitude, among many others, are the things which anchor our souls and give us a structure to hang on to as grow towards the source of light and life. They are means of grace, not a check list. Disciplines for sure, but not a rubric.

How might that change the way you practice these things in your life? How is God calling you to grow in these disciplines?