How Spiritual Disciplines Form Habits
by Bill Hull
When we start to train
our mind to look at life differently, a great struggle will ensue. And
if this training is not in the context of supportive relationships, we
will probably fail. Lack of relational support is also why so many
people gain weight back after significant weight loss. If they think it
is a terrible loss to not eat chips, cookies, pasta, and ice cream, they
look on these unhealthy foods with longing and miss eating them.
Eventually, they go back to their old habits because they want to go
back and think they need to.
So
like the goals in weight loss and healthy eating, the goal for
spiritual growth is to form the will through the process of transforming
desires and then through obedience to exercise good desires until they
establish good habits and godly character. As Willard says: “We want to
have a will that is fully functional, not at war with itself and capable
of directing all of the parts of the self in harmony with one another
under the direction of God” (Willard, Renovation, 156).
Confusing Disciplines with Spirituality
As
helpful as spiritual disciplines are, they must not be confused with
spirituality itself. They are not the basis for our relationship with
God but simply practices that provide a context for him to work to
transform us. I find it most helpful to think of spiritual disciplines
as like the exercises we do to improve our physical well-being. Some
disciplines will work indirectly like running, which changes the
physiology of the body. The muscles burn energy, the lungs expand to
take in increased oxygen, and the heart pumps harder. Over time (several
weeks), the muscles grow stronger, the lungs have more capacity, and
the heart’s ability to pump blood increases. The runner did not directly will the muscles, heart, and lungs to become better; this happened indirectly. The runner willed to run to attain the desired result but also gained greater general health.
The
spiritual disciplines work in a similar way. Let’s say that you desire
to become a more loving person. You can’t command your feelings to
suddenly change. But you can choose to take the actions that will lead
to the desired result. You ask God to change your motives. Then like a
runner, you begin a program of regularly praying, taking in God’s word,
and worship him in a variety of ways. Over time, your heart begins to
enjoy pleasing him, like many runners begin to enjoy running. You may
choose to fast, transferring the physical desire for food to spiritual
longing for a deeper experience of God and the nourishment he provides.
Then you may choose to serve others by doing loving things for them.
Suddenly one day you realize that you enjoy serving others and that
loving others has become natural for you. Like running changes the body,
your spiritual discipline exercises, developed into habits, change your
character, which is revealed by how you act. You chose to keep at these
exercises because God put the desire for change in your heart.
Let
me give you another practical, concrete example from real life. One
fruit of the Spirit is self-control, the ability to do what we intend to
do and not do what we don’t intend to do. Many people lack this
ability. They cannot pass a pastry tray without having a taste, or pass
by an attractive person without flirting. Often the desire for that food
or person remains in their heart and mind.
Jesus on Transformation
In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks of the process of spiritual
transformation. The religious leaders, scribes, and Pharisees were
focused on external behavior, ignoring the heart. But Jesus looks at the
source of behavior, not just the outward appearance. He
teaches that true godliness is driven from the mind, will, and spirit.
For example, Jesus teaches that murder is the result of anger. If people
are not first angry with others, they are not likely to murder them. So
rather than avoiding the act of murder, we should focus on thoughts,
attitudes, and feelings. Jesus tells us to deal with our anger,
cultivate peace and love in our relationships, and forgive others who
wrong us.
Here is an analogy. If you are flying to
Houston from Los Angeles, you don’t have to fly to Seattle. Flying to
Seattle is not something you need to worry about. In the same way, if
you learn to forgive others and deal with the root of your anger, you
won’t need to worry that you will kill them.
Lust
provides another concrete example and connects to our earlier discussion
about self-control. Suppose you are a man who meets an attractive
woman, and you allow the image of her to take up residence in your mind.
You can’t go through a day without thinking about her, having fantasies
about her, and creating an alternative universe where you are together.
You realize that something must be done to stop these desires. Our
first impulse, trying harder to exert our will power, won’t work. You
can’t command yourself, “DON’T LUST. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT HER!”
Neither will attempting to obey commands and keep promises. No, the
problem is too deep for these solutions. You need to address the source
of your thoughts and the reasons behind your desire. The goal is to get to state were not thinking about the woman does not seem like a loss.
You need to examine your longing and why you feel deprived when you
don’t have what you desire. You need to bring the provision of God into
that place of longing.
The Remedy
These
situations are where the spiritual exercises and disciplines are
helpful. The good news is that we have remedies to cure wrong desires!
Whether our longing is for a person, food, a house, a job, or some other
thing, the remedy is the same. Consider some basic things:
- Begin by asking God, “Why am I longing for this person, thing, or situation?” Pray for help in discerning the source. Find another person you trust to talk with about it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer often spoke about how sin wants nothing more than to be alone with you. Sin is empowered when we shut others out.
- Take a close look at your expectations and think about the consequences of satisfying your sinful desire. Often, we fail to think through to the end. So we need to ask what would it be like, honestly, to get what we want? Our dreams are filled with assumptions about the world that are not aligned with reality. Graciously, God will show us the fallacy of our dreams, which may have been fed by the values and idols of the culture in which we live. Also, you may have triggers in your life, unconscious ways of responding in which you’ve been trained to be dissatisfied with what you are or have. Remember that the enemy’s goal is to make us dissatisfied with what God has given us and to doubt that he loves us. The enemy wants us to think that God is withholding good things from us.
- Be patient. Change takes time. You may ask why and then have to wait in trust for God to reveal the answer. In the meantime, practice what he tells you. Avoid the triggers and practice the antidote: remember that everything you have is a gift from God and learn to be thankful for what you do have. Focus on the good news of what Jesus has done for you in the cross and resurrection. Your mind will eventually change and inform your will. Over time, you will begin to want what God has convinced you is good. One day it will dawn on you that you no longer miss thinking about that person, food, house, job, or whatever. Its power is gone, and that is just fine with you.
- Keep exercising the spiritual disciplines such as worship, service, Scripture reading and memorization, prayer, fasting, confession, submission, silence, and solitude. These disciplines expose our motives and bring the flaws in our character to the surface. Negative thoughts that have been buried for a long time and create destructive emotions will be exposed. The disciplines will provide the structure and context that you need for long-term growth and maturity.
Follow Bill Hull on Twitter here and Facebook here.This excerpt has been adapted from Conversion and Discipleship.
Image credit: Unsplash.
Posted on Wed, January 11, 2017
by kris hull filed under
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar