Spiritual Disciplines Character Formation Essay

Use the course readings and Scriptures to explain how you might intentionally practice spiritual disciplines to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work of forming your character. (200-300 words)

Spiritual disciplines are a critical component to mastering and forming character. From my readings spiritual disciplines are important as they first allow an individual to break the daily drudgery and monotony of life of focus on Gods calling. This is particularly important giving the social media age and how convenience, speed, and sin are easily accessible. By intentionally practicing spiritual disciplines, I can first develop the habits required to mitigate the influence of sinful behaviors and emphasize by personal growth in the holy spirit.

I intend to accomplish this be first establishing a daily habit and routine by which I can continue to leverage the power of spiritual disciplines. For example, I intend to pray daily for at a minimum of 30 minutes. I intend to do this at night to refocus my intentions and behaviors for the following day. I also intend to have dedicated study time focusing exclusively on the bible. These two spiritual disciplines alone with provide a foundation to help to continue forming my character. Prayer will be a spiritual discipline that will allow me to continue forming a relationship with God. Through this initiate relationship I can become much more attune with his specific desires and motivations for my life. Likewise study, will allow me to better comprehend the purpose of God and how it expects us, as believers to behave in a much more sinful world (Ackerman, 1994).

Briefly share any personal experience practicing any of the spiritual disciplines. For example, you might discuss disciplines you have practiced, disciplines you have never tried, the kind of personal impact you noticed, aspects you found challenging, or ways you felt drawn to Christ through practicing the disciplines. (150-250 words)

As noted above the spiritual disciplines that I have personally tried are prayer, meditation, and studying. From the perspective of prayer this has personally impacted me as I didn’t know how to properly pray. When started out, my prayers were often hollow and uninspired. I found myself simply “going through the motions,” as this was a requirement from a biblical perspective. My prayers had no passion or any desire behind them and as such it was difficult for my to feel the prescience of the holy spirit. As a result, the benefits of prayer as it relates to mitigating sin and destructive feelings didn’t manifest themselves. Overtime, and as my relationship with God developed, I was much more effective in prayer. For example, I began to first pray with friends to better understand not only “why” we pray, but “how” to pray. I was much more effective as we prayed on very close and intimates objectives that many within the church where not aware of. After the prayer, I began to use the scripture and the power of God as oppose to my own will to accomplish tasks. I also began to help others in their journey with God through prayer. Through this spiritual discipline, I was first unable to properly pray and garner the relationship with God that I desired. Overtime however and with the assistance of members of the church, I was able to overcome these shortcomings (Allen, 1997).

Practice one specific spiritual discipline for this assignment and reflect on that experience. Identify the discipline you practiced and how you practiced it. Share why you chose that discipline. Consider what you found challenging, helpful, enjoyable, or neutral about the experience. Will you do anything differently the next time you practice the discipline? (250-350 words)

The spiritual discipline of studying was a very interesting experience for me, as much like prayer, thought I already knew how to do it. Unfortunately, as with prayer, study requires a strong level of conviction and practice to properly master. For one, when studying the scripture is it important to read between the lines to better understand the meaning of the scripture. It is important to simply not read scripture literally, but to understand the underlying meaning with the context of the chapter. I initially practiced the discipline through a weekly bible study on Wednesdays. The bible study was typically conducted for roughly 1.5 to 2.5 hours on Wednesday.

What I found challenging was that I was learning, but I wasn’t developing. In order to properly develop my understanding of the bible, its context, and its relation to my life, I had to study personally and in solitude. This was much more beneficial to me as I was better able to grow at my own pace, dedicate my spirt to learning, and had a intimate setting to do this. I also learned that once a week of study simply was not enough properly developing my own personal competency of study. This was enjoyable as well, as I could pick what I was personally interested in learning and studying within the bible. This was particularly empowering as I was also better able to relate my studies to my personal life. Finally, through this spiritual discipline, I was also able to form stronger bonds with my church community as we discussed my personal learnings with each other (Aleshire, 1988).

How will you plan to incorporate spiritual disciplines into your life going forward? (150-250 words)