SPIRITUAL PRACTICES a guide
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CONTENTS Spiritual Practices Guide: An Overview
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Morning Spiritual Practices
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Meditating on Scripture
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Spiritual Practice of Walking
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Afternoon Spiritual Practices
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Spiritual Practice of Resting
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Meditating on Scripture:
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Evening Spiritual Practices
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Preparing for Sleep
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SPIRITUAL PRACTICES GUIDE An Overview This is a guide to three spiritual practice spaces (morning, afternoon, and evening). This guide is meant to direct you but not to rule over you. The main purpose is to be with Jesus. We will review two basic questions throughout the day: • Where are you? • Who are you?
SUGGESTED SCHEDULE
Morning
where are you?
Afternoon
who are you?
Soul Questions/Psalm 137/Walk
Psalm 3/Nap (20 min)/Walk (30 min)
Evening Night Reflection
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MORNING SPIRITUAL PRACTICES Begin with silence 5 minutes or more
Where are you?
Thinking about the landscape that you chose during the introductory session, why did you choose that particular landscape?
What is God doing in that space?
What do you celebrate about this time?
What is your prayer in that place? Gratitude, deliverance, lament?
What questions/tensions are emerging in your soul? 5
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “Tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. Psalm 137
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Meditating on Scripture In a Strange Place Read the Psalm once through.
Sit with Jesus in this text.
Read the Psalm once again slowly. Gently notice a word or phrase that sticks out to you. Ask Jesus why that phrase is sticking out. And what he is saying to you.
Read the Psalm again and notice how you feel being away from home, ‘in a foreign land’?
What do you celebrate about this time? Read the Psalm and receive the invitation to “Remember.” Be silent and sit before God for the next ten minutes. Release anything in prayer that you need to release and simply be with Jesus. 7
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF WALKING Walking is regular theme in Scripture—Enoch was praised and taken up into heaven for walking with God. Augustine once said, “Things are solved by walking around.” For those who struggle with stillness, we can engage in slowing down through a spiritual walk. Walk to be with Jesus. Invite him by saying a prayer like: “Jesus, I am here now. I want to be present to you today. If you have something to say, my heart, mind and ears are open to you. Otherwise, I am fine just being with you.”
Breathe slowly.
Walk at a slow pace. Feel each step as you move along the ground.
Feel free to stop and notice things around you. God may draw your attention to the nature around you.
Conclude your walk by thanking God for his presence with you.
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AFTERNOON SPIRITUAL PRACTICES For the afternoon, if you can work through the following section, take a nap and a walk, you will have had a full afternoon. Don’t put pressure on yourself to get anything done but just enjoy your time with Jesus.
Who are you?
How is God speaking into your identity in recent days? Where are you finding your identity?
What are you noticing about yourself?
What changes do you notice about yourself?
What do you notice about yourself and relationship with others? Do you feel more or less drawn to others?
What are your needs right now? (physically, socially, emotionally, or spiritually) 9
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SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF RESTING Please nap for at least 20 minutes. If you sense God calling you to nap the whole time, please do so. Resting is a deeply spiritual exercise. God rested after seven days and commanded his people to rest on the Sabbath. Elijah slept after being burned out from his prophetic ministry. Jesus slept on a boat. Invite Jesus to be present with you in your nap and to give you restorative and healing sleep. Wake up, thanking God for the rest that he gives.
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MEDITATING ON SCRIPTURE: Longing for Salvation We live in a challenging time. Being able to articulate the challenges is an important part of the process of acknowledging where we are and moving forward. We invite you to reflect on this Psalm, sit with Jesus and hear what he has to say to you.
LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.� But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Arise, LORD! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. Psalm 3
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Read the Psalm once through. Sit with Jesus in this text.
Read the Psalm once again slowly and gently notice a word or phrase that sticks out to you.
How does this Psalm resonate with your world? What or who are your foes?
Where do you sense a desire to be ‘saved’ or ‘delivered’? Where are you feeling vulnerable in your life?
Where are you resisting vulnerability?
Sit with Jesus in this particular space for five minutes. What emotions are rising up in you? Begin to name them and allow God to listen to you in this moment and hear you. (Angry, sad, anxious, worried, tired, joy.) Please using the following prompts to express your thoughts and feelings. I feel I feel Then, as you are led, write out your prayer. It may begin with, “Lord, deliver me. I have on every side.” 13
EVENING SPIRITUAL PRACTICES Night Reflection Tonight, you are invited to silent reflection, prayer, and restful slumber. This is a time for you be still with Jesus before you sleep tonight. Allow Psalm 131 to be your guide for prayer.
My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore. Psalm 131:1-3
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Find a comfortable place and position your body into a place of rest. Spend some time in stillness before God. Like the Psalmist, calm and quiet your soul. Take some deep breaths: breathe in and out a couple of times until your heart rate slows down. Invite and allow God’s presence to be with you. He may have a word for you tonight or just want to be with you. Where are you concerning yourself with “great matters or things too wonderful for” you? Surrender them to God in prayer. After your time of silence, say this prayer:
I, your name forevermore.
, put my hope in the LORD both now and
PREPARING FOR SLEEP As you prepare for bed... let the act of crawling into bed and laying your head on your pillow become an exercise in trusting your whole self—body and soul—to God. As you pull the covers over yourself, imagine that God is putting his arms around you, holding you, covering you with his love. Feel the tiredness in your body and enjoy how good it feels to lie there, invited by God to relax and rest. If cares and concerns surface, trust these to God even as you trust yourself to God. If you wake up in the night, don’t fight your wakefulness; just allow yourself to become aware that you are with God and God is with you, looking on you with love as you rest. In this way, you are still resting your soul as your body is awake. Ruth Haley Barton. Invitation to Retreat. IVP Books (Sept. 18 2018)
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CANADIAN BAPTISTS of Ontario and Quebec
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CANADIAN BAPTISTS of Ontario and Quebec A family of churches Transformed by Christ Revealing God’s kingdom
Contact: Paul Lam | Church Life and Leadership Associate 416-620-2956 | plam@baptist.ca | @cboq
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