[5] Spiritual Disciplines (1)
Wed 4 April 2018
Wed 4 April 2018
Tonight we began thinking about spiritual disciplines.
We shared how it is going praying every day. Most are still finding it fairly easy to pray in the morning but evenings easily get missed. We are still keen to continue with the morning and evening rhythm.
Some of us had been for a prayer walk over Itchen Bridge on Tuesday evening. Most felt that it was a good place to be and felt it is a bridge of hope. We were encouraged by the view from the bridge, looking out over the city and felt God's heart of love for Southampton. There is an appetite to go prayer walking there again!
Last week we made a list of things we can do to become a community. When we wrote this up it felt to us like we were describing a church. Are we trying to build another church?? No we are not, but we know that the House of Prayer needs to be a community that the Holy Spirit dwells in and where there is a lot of prayer going on. However, when you look down the list, you realise that as we work together on the HoP we will be doing things that help us grow together as a community. So all is well - the community will grow organically, as a by-product of us working together on building the HoP (and we are not trying to be an alternative church).
One of our members, Ros, has had a picture of God weaving multi-coloured threads together:
I saw that each person in the group is like a different coloured thread.
The colours represent who we are, our life experiences, church background etc.
God is just beginning to weave the threads together into a beautiful tapestry/prayer shawl that will cover the city and bring glory to His name. I believe God is beginning to do this already.
So God is weaving us together. The different threads represent the different things we can offer. So a good question to ask is, what can I offer to the group?
We spent 5 mins quietly asking God what he has given us to give to the group.
Then we each shared that with the group and we all responded in unison "Amen, we receive what you are offering the group". It was a beautiful time, hearing the diversity and sincerity of what God has placed within us.
We want to get better at seeing what God is doing, as in our study of John chapter 9 in the second week. In order to do this we need to be taking responsibility for growing in our own relationship with God.
Here is an illustration... When we were in the sacred space a few weeks ago, Greg had a picture of Richard with a shovel and digging a well. Richard felt that God was saying if the wells are muddy and buried we won't be able to see what God is doing. We need to keep the wells clear. This is a picture of spiritual disciplines - they are the tools God has given us to keep the wells clear.
This is how we get better at seeing what he is doing. This was very timely as Kathy had discovered a well when widening a path at Aldermoor Community Farm the Saturday before!
There are various names for these tools - spiritual disciplines, spiritual transformation, cultivating our spirituality. Over the coming weeks we will be looking at what practically this means.
Tonight two of our group (Chris and Carolyn) gave us a talk about fasting - this is because fasting had been mentioned a few weeks ago and it seemed a great way to get into the topic of spiritual disciplines.
You can read what they shared about fasting with us here.
We decided to have a fast day next Wednesday. Use the notes we have to help you. For example, start small! When we meet in the evening we will break bread together (holy communion) to break the fast.