The Student Ministries at Cayuga Christian are working on the development of Small Groups. Personally, I am meeting with a group of guys approximately twice a month. Although we have not reached a necessary point of trust to really open up in our group yet, I can see us growing closer already.
We are learning things about each other, we are becoming more familiar with the things we like and dislike, and we are becoming more comfortable around each other. These first steps in a small group are necessary if you want to reach a point of trust. Once you reach that point of trust, the potential for your group seems to be endless.
I hope to reach a point of trust in our group where we are holding one another accountable for the sin in our lives through confession and prayer.
Truthfully, we all know that others, as well as ourselves, struggle with things throughout life, and yet it seems as though we never want to confess our struggles to anyone. However, one of the most powerful spiritual disciplines is confession. Why might it be that we never want to utilize this discipline? Quite obviously, there is only one thing holding us back and that is our pride.
God has given us all kinds of opportunities to utilize the spiritual disciplines, and yet many of us go through life trying to repent and transform our lives on our own again because of our pride. Today, let’s recognize the value of the disciplines that God gave us. Let’s stop looking at them as a crutch and see them as a tool to be used for betterment of our spiritual lives.
Inward Disciplines - Meditation…Prayer…Fasting…Study
Outward Disciplines - Simplicity…Submission…Solitude…Service
Corporate Disciplines - Confession…Worship…Guidance…Celebration
The discipline list is from Richard Foster’s, “Celebration of Discipline”.
1 comments:
That was a good book. I learned a lot from it. It would be nice if God's people would start to practice some of these then maybe that abundant life that Jesus told us would become evident in our lives here on earth.
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