Spiritual Disciplines (Recap)
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a series on tips for developing different spiritual disciplines. Here is a list of the posts:
Spiritual Discipline: Prayer – Six tips for talking to God.
As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith. Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God. It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires. The list could go on for days. God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.
Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week. Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray. Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.
Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for. So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.
Tip #3: Talk to God. This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.” This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer. It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.
Tip #4: Write it down. When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about. Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time. Keep it simple though. Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.
Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine…even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.
Tip #6: Keep it sweet. Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying? The reality is that this is the core of all prayer…to seek the face of God….to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.
[i] Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).
Spiritual Discipline: Bible Reading/Journaling – Four Tips for Bible Reading and Journaling
The two most basic disciplines of the Christian faith are scripture reading and prayer. In fact, it is hard to separate the two. God communicates to His people through His Word, and we communicate with Him through prayer. This week we are going to focus on reading our Bibles and journaling, and next week we’ll look at prayer.
Reading our Bibles and journaling our thoughts are helpful tools to cultivate our relationship with Jesus. Through scripture we are able to learn more about Jesus, have Him speak to our hearts, and be prepared to do His work. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of spending time in God’s Word.
Tip #1: Have “triggers.” Probably one of the hardest things to do is to get in the habit of opening your Bible. Leo Babauta of WritetoDone.com talks about putting triggers in your life to help you develop habits.
What’s a trigger? It’s the event that sets off your habit. For example, when I used to smoke, I had a number of triggers: I would smoke upon waking, when stressed, after a meeting, etc. When I wanted to change that habit, I had to change each trigger so that I had a new habit to replace smoking. Upon waking, for example, I would exercise instead. To create a new habit, you need to strongly associate your habit with a trigger. For example, let’s say you want to write in the morning — you might awake, use the bathroom, make your coffee, and then start writing. So making coffee is the trigger for writing, and using the bathroom is the trigger for making coffee, and waking is the trigger for using the bathroom. And as you wake every day, you have no problem. Choose a trigger that you know you’ll do every day, and then do your writing right after it, without exception.[i]
Triggers can be a very powerful tool for any spiritual discipline that you are trying to start.
Tip #2: Have all the right resources. It is suggested that when you sit down to spend time in the Bible, you should have the following items:
A Bible – Make sure it is a version that you can understand (different versions of the Bible are written at different reading levels). This guide uses the English Standard Version, but you might find another version easier to understand. Just go to your local bookstore and test a few out. See how easy they are to read and if you can understand the words that are being used.
A Journal – This is where you are going to write down your thoughts. You can find several different styles at your bookstore. Don’t be afraid to switch journals if one isn’t working for you. Use the first few pages to keep an index of what you are learning each day. This way you can look back and see what you have been learning.
A Reading Plan – This guide provides you with passages to read every day while you’re going through the lessons. When you’re done going through this guide, read whatever you want. Just have a plan. There are several different Bible reading plans online that will take you through the Bible in a year, or you could make it as simple as reading two chapters a day. Whatever you do, use a plan, or you’ll spend half your time trying to figure out what to read.
A Planner - It’s going to happen. You are going to be in the middle of having a wonderful time with God. Journaling your heart out…and you are going to remember that you’re out of milk. This is where your planner comes in handy. You can write down, “get milk” and go right back to your journaling. If you don’t have a planner, just use a scratch piece of paper. Otherwise, your time with God will be hijacked by random thoughts of things you need to do for the day.
Tip #3: Use S.O.A.P. This is an acronym for a Bible reading and journaling structure from Wayne Cordeiro.[ii] It stands for the following:
Scripture: Start off with the Bible. Read the verses that are on your plan for the day.
Observation: As you read, write down any observations that you have from the text. Use the questions, “Who is God?,” and “How do I enjoy Him?,” to focus your observations even better.
Application: Based on what you have read…what should you do? Try to make this practical and realistic. Set a goal for the day based upon your reading. Write it down and hold yourself accountable to it.
Prayer: Last but not least, spend some time in prayer to God. Confess and repent of any sins that were brought to light while you were reading. Spend time thanking God. Also spend some time in silence listening to God. Make note of these in your journal.
Tip #4: Keep it simple. The goal of your time with God is to try to grow closer to Him. It’s not to check off your list. Don’t add extra burdens to this focus, such as: “I have to make at least 15 observations.” “I have to write at least 5 pages in my journal.” “I have to pray for at least 45 minutes.” The goal is to spend time with God and to grow closer to Him. Do what it takes to do just that…the rest is just distractions, burdens, and religion.
[i] Leo Babauta, “10 Steps to Create the Habit of Writing,” www.writetodone.com, January 9, 2008, http://writetodone.com/2008/01/09/10-steps-to-create-the-habit-of-writing/.
[ii] Wayne Cordeiro, “Plenary Session 1” (presented at the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference), Orlando, Florida, April 25, 2007).
Tech Wednesday – ESV Study Bible
Ok I know…it’s a book. Some might say that a book isn’t technology, but I say tell that to Gutenberg. Anyways back to the point at hand. Crossway recently annouced it is coming out with an ESV Study Bible in Ocober. For most of you this won’t be a big deal, but I’m totally geeking out on this one.
Let me give you a run down of the authors in this Study Bible:
That’s just the authors. This thing has:
I’ve also heard that buyng this study Bible will garuntee a place in heaven and a new BMW. Ok maybe not. But the free online version is a nice plus. All I have to say is I own too many Bibles already, but I might have to add one more to my collection.
26 Tips for Spending time with God…Hardcore Style
photo by: JasonRogers
If you’re like me, you have trouble spending time with God (I don’t like to use the words quiet time…it makes me feel like I’m five and in a “time out”). I’ve written in the past on some tips and tricks that I use to do this daily. But just like in a marriage relationship, sometimes you just need to spend more than a few minutes with your spouse. You need to spend the whole day. I call this spending time with God hardcore style.
I learned this concept from Doug Fields a few years ago. He talked about one of his youth saying that they “take God on a date.” Now taking God on a date is a little creepy for me, but I liked the concept. The idea is to just spend some extended time with God and nobody else.
To do this, I normally take an afternoon and spend the entire time reading scripture, praying, walking, reading some more, praying some more, and walking some more. The idea is to have a large chunk of time that is devoted to nothing but growing closer to God. This isn’t time to study your Bible and parse Greek verbs…this is time to just be with your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.
The following are 26 quick tips that can help you with your hardcore time with God.
- Get out of your house. There are to many distractions there. To many things to play with.
- Get away from people.
- Go to a park or go hiking. Go be in His creation.
- Wear comfortable clothing.
- Turn off everything…phone, pager, radio, ipod, laptop, ect. If it has an on/off, make it off.
- Look for God in everything and then give Him the glory.
- Take your Bible (ESV
), a pen, and something to write on. - Anytime you think about something that you need to do when you get home, write it down and forget about it. This will allow you to focus on your time with God. (this is a good practice in general)
- Take a list of prayer requests and things/people you want to pray for.
- Have an agenda/time line.
- Don’t have an agenda/time line.
- Pray, pray, pray
- Take a snack and some cash.
- Take some water.
- Tell one person where you are going to be in case of emergencies (your wife goes into labor). This helps to keep your thoughts from being overtaken.
- Read through a whole book of the Bible several times.
- Read through a passage of scripture several times.
- Read all the gospels in one sitting (it can be done in an afternoon).
- Fast
- Eat
- Just walk and talk to God as if He was walking right next to you.
- Take a short nap (it’s better to sleep for 20 minutes than to fight it for 3 hrs).
- Write out your prayers to God.
- Pray for God to reveal sin in your life that is keeping you from Him.
- Take some time to sit and listen to God.
- Be diligent to focus on God and your relationship.
Well I hope that helps. I’m off to go spend some hardcore time with God. Leave me a comment, with any tips that you might have for spending hardcore time with God.
I’m the worst of all sinners!
photo by: laughlin
No I’m not going to confess some horrible crime that I’ve committed. But I must say that I learned something the other day from a good friend that opened my eyes. On Saturday I had breakfast with a few of my friends and one of the things that came up was the realization of our sins.
Now I grew up with an understanding that as you grew in Christ you sinned less and therefore you noticed less sin in your life (can you say run-on sentence). But my friend Paul Ford pointed out that is only half true. Yes we grow closer to Christ and become more like Him, but we only grow in the realization of how sinful we are. Everyday we grow closer to Jesus, we see how much more of sinner we are.
Paul pointed out how in the Apostle Paul’s writing’s the apostle grew in his recognition of his own sin. Early in his ministry Paul says he’s a sinner. Later he says he is the worst of the twelve, and late in his ministry he tells Timothy that he is the worst of all (or chief for you KJV people out there). This comes from the guy who wrote a huge chunk of the Bible.
I think we need to rewrite the books (I don’t know what books…just the books). The reality is that we as we grow closer to Jesus we only see how dirty we really are. But the great thing is that He is faithful to forgive us and clean us up. The answer is not to ignore our sin…but to ask daily for it to be revealed and then to rest in the grace, mercy and love our our heavenly Father.
At least God knows what He’s doing… Part 5
The following is part 5 of a 5 part series. Go here for Part 1
I started to head to the security check point that I came through the first time about 500 feet down the hallway. My mind was racing.
I remember putting it in my back pocket. Maybe it fell out when I sat down at Starbucks. Maybe it’s in the men’s restroom. How the hell am I going to get it back? Their not going to let me in and I’m going to be stuck in Seattle for ever. I don’t want to be stuck in Seattle I just want to home and see Shannon.
“Excuse me sir…I think I might have left my driver’s license here when I came through security the first time.”
“We have a driver’s license that we found. What’s your name?”
“Greg Qualls”
“Let me go look.”
Why the hell did I go get Diego’s Bible? They could have mailed it to him. If I had just stayed in the airport I wouldn’t be dealing with all this right now. God why didn’t you just have Diego not forget his Bible in the van…I would be probably sipping on some coffee right now still reading my book…
But I wouldn’t have realized that I didn’t have my driver’s license…then I would have to go through all the crap to get a new driver’s license. And I would have to pay the money for the new driver’s license. And I would have to deal with the DMV.
So I guess it is a good thing that I did go and get it. Thanks God for having Diego forget his Bible in the van…wait a second. God why didn’t you just make sure that Diego didn’t forget his Bible and make sure that I didn’t loose my driver’s license. I would still be sitting in Starbucks reading my book.
“Here you go sir…just sign hear and print your name her.”
“Thank you sir.”
As I walked to the TSA agent and finally handed him my driver’s license and boarding pass for the second time in the last hour, I began to think to myself…God really does work in mysterious ways.
And I heard in the quiet of my heart, “Yes I do…and I’m good.” I don’t know why God had me go through this little adventure. There could be several reasons. All I know was that, in the end, I felt the hand of God working through all of it. I felt His plan being worked out in my life and I felt drawn closer to Him.
At least He knows what He’s doing, because the majority of the time I don’t have a clue.
At least God knows what He’s doing… Part 2
The following is part 2 of a 5 part series. Go here for Part 1
I decided it was time to get something to eat, and after eating I Seattle for the week, I decided Wendy’s was probably the best idea for lunch with my remaining budget. After getting my ¼ pound hamburger (sorry April and Alf) with a medium drink (witch was really like a large) and medium fries, I proceeded to sit down on a bench and watch the planes take off and the baggage handlers loose peoples luggage (sorry Donald). About the time I finished my French fries, Diego showed up to tell me that he had gotten his laptop.
I was excited for the man, but he hadn’t gotten a chance to go get his Bible. Looking at the time, I told him that he probably had just enough time to go get it. He agreed and off he was again. This was the last time that I saw him in my story.
So once again I thought the adventure was over. I figured that he would get his Bible, catch his plane, and that would be it…the end. So I got up and proceeded to head to my gate. We had to drop off the rental car early so we wouldn’t have to pay for another day. So, I had a lot of time to waste waiting for my plane. So I made my way to one of the Starbucks to set up camp and relax for a couple of hours. But God had other plans.
At least God knows what He’s doing… Part 1
As I finally handed the TSA agent my driver’s license and boarding pass for the second time in the last hour, I began to think to myself…God really does work in mysterious ways.
This thought…no…this realization didn’t come through the easiest of fashions. At about 12 today, I was walking back to Diego’s and my table at the restaurant from going to the bathroom (and this had to be one of the cleanest airport restrooms that I’ve been to so far). Diego was frantically looking through every pocket in his backpack. Zipper after zipper was flying open as I sat down at the table.
Diego looked up at me and told me that he had to go.
“Ok…why?”
“I left my laptop at security. And I left my Bible in the rental car.”
I thought it was a reasonable thing to go do and he had plenty of time to go get his stuff and still make his plane. So he threw some money on the table, finished his drink, and headed out the door. I thought that would be the last time I would see him for the day. But God had other plans.
Use S.O.A.P. – Simple tips for spending time with God.
A few months ago I listened to a lesson by Wayne Cordeiro that changed the way I spent my time in the Bible every day (you can listen to it here. The lesson was so practical but also so relevant and inspiring. The reality was that I wasn’t going to the Father with my needs. I wasn’t going to Him and growing in my relationship with Him. I was basically getting spiritual crumbs from books, podcasts and my pastor. I was living vicariously through others’ relationships with God.
Wayne’s lesson was a needed kick in the pants. He reminded me of my need for a one-on-one relationship with God. While it’s good to learn from others, Jesus calls us to follow Him (not follow others who are following Him). This has always been one of my biggest struggles. After listening to Wayne, I knew that I needed to go to the Source.Wayne gives some helpful tips for spending time in the Bible. Being the nice guy I am, I’ll share those tips with you (and some others that I picked up along the way).
Tip #1:
The first tip is actually from zenhabits.net and writetodone.com. The author of both of these blogs (Leo Babauta) talks about putting triggers in you life to make you do the things that you don’t want to do.
What’s a trigger? It’s the event that sets off your habit. For example, when I used to smoke, I had a number of triggers: I would smoke upon waking, when stressed, after a meeting, etc. When I wanted to change that habit, I had to change each trigger so that I had a new habit to replace smoking. Upon waking, for example, I would exercise instead. To create a new habit, you need to strongly associate your habit with a trigger. For example, let’s say you want to write in the morning — you might awake, use the bathroom, make your coffee, and then start writing. So making coffee is the trigger for writing, and using the bathroom is the trigger for making coffee, and waking is the trigger for using the bathroom. And as you wake every day, you have no problem. Choose a trigger that you know you’ll do every day, and then do your writing right after it, without exception.
My trigger is getting dressed for work. Like Leo’s example above, I have other triggers before that, but this is the trigger for me to spend time with God.
Tip #2:
Have all the right resources. Wayne suggests that when you sit down to spend time in the Bible, you should have the following items.
- A Bible – This is a no brainer. But make sure it is version that you can understand (different versions of the Bible are written at different reading levels). I use the ESV…but you might find another version to your liking. Just go to your local book store and test a few out. See how easy they are to read and if you can understand the words that are being used.
- A Journal – This is where you are going to write down your thoughts. I use a blog to keep my daily thoughts, and it works well for me. Plus, I can share with my friends my daily reflections. Otherwise Wayne recommends using a paper journal and using the first few pages to keep an index of what you are learning. This way you can look back and see what your have been learning (another reason I use a blog…this is done automatically for me).
- A Reading Plan – Use whatever you want. Just have a plan. I am using the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan to read through the Bible each year. But you could make it as simple as reading two chapters a day or two pages. Whatever you do use a plan or else you’ll spend half your time trying to figure out what to read.
- A Planner - It’s going to happen. You are going to be in the middle of having a wonderful time with God. Journaling your heart our…and you are going to remember that you’re out of milk. This is where your planner comes in handy. You can write down, “get milk” and go right back to your journaling. If you don’t have a planner, just use a scratch piece of paper. This is probably the best advice that I got from Wayne. I don’t know how many times my God time was hijacked by random thoughts of things I need to do for the day.
Tip #3:
Use S.O.A.P. This is Wayne’s structure for your time with God. It stands for the following:
Scripture: Start off with the Bible. Read the verses that are on your plan for the day.
Observation: As you read, write down any observations that you have from the text. I use the questions, “Who is God?,” and “How do I enjoy Him?,” to focus my observations even better.
Application: Based on what you have read…what should you do? I try to make this practical and realistic. I set a goal for the day based upon my reading. Write it down and hold yourself accountable to it.
Prayer: Last but not least, spend some time in prayer to God. Confess and repent of any sins that were brought to light while you were reading. Spend time thanking God. Also spend some time in silence listening to God.
Tip #4:
Keep it simple. The goal of your time with God is to try to grow closer to Him. It’s not to check off your list. Don’t add extra burdens to this focus. “I have to make at least 15 observations.” “I have to write at least 5 pages in my journal.” “I have to pray for at least 45 minutes.” The goal is to spend time with God and to grow closer to Him. Do what it takes to do just that…the rest is just distractions, burdens, and religion.
Follow Me
Recent Comments
What I'm Doing...
- BBQ in 15 min. Come join us. We got the dogs and burgers. (@ Casa de Qualls) http://4sq.com/aSBjXK 1 week ago
- It's really annoying when people try to make up nicknames for themselves...I'm looking at you Radio Shack. 1 week ago
- Great morning. Got up, went swimming with Asa, bought him some books at Savers, had pancakes for lunch...and now to nap. 1 week ago
- Hey #ABQ where is the best/cheapest place to get an emissions test? 2 weeks ago
- More updates...
Categories
- Baby
- Beer Tip of the Day
- Church
- Church Planting
- COAH
- Current Events
- Discipleship
- House
- Jesus
- Life
- Pictures
- Re:Train
- Religion/Spirituality
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Survey
- Tech
- Tech Wednesday
- Tip and Tricks
- Uncategorized
- Videos
Flickr Photos
