Changing into conscious of God’s presence in our lives and on this planet is a vital step in religious transformation. It solidifies our religion and conjures up us alongside the best way. In Incline Your Ear: Cultivating Non secular Awakening in Congregations, Rev. Chad Abbott and I write about how religion communities and congregations can turn into extra reflective about moments the place they expertise God’s presence.
Particular moments to Savor
For many of us, the moments of acute consciousness of the Spirit’s motion in our lives are particular and occasional. Outdated timers known as these “mountaintop experiences,” and we don’t get to the mountaintop every single day. However as soon as we’ve been there, it’s useful to follow remembering these particular moments of deep connection and to ponder how they’ve modified our lives and the way we are able to proceed to be remodeled by the perception gleaned from these vital moments.
What’s Non secular Reflection?
Non secular reflection is popping our consideration to what we deem most vital—what theologian Paul Tillich refers to as “final concern,” which he describes as “numinous or holy, distinct from all profane and unusual realities. Additionally it is skilled as overwhelmingly actual and priceless—certainly, so actual and so priceless that, as compared, all different issues seem empty and nugatory.”
Paying consideration to what’s holy and being grateful for these moments is countercultural and all the time has been. Keep in mind the story of Jesus therapeutic ten lepers and just one remembering and turning again to say “thanks” and reward God (Luke 17:11–19)? The world strikes very quick, and we turn into impatient to get on with our lives, like these 9 lepers who didn’t cease and present gratitude. After we decelerate, we might discover ourselves out of step with our “shifting on the pace of life” tradition. But when we merely take all these great presents with out spending time appreciating them, then we’re lacking out on the fullness of the blessing.
Deal with Listening to God
Non secular reflection is the intentional give attention to how God is making an attempt to speak with us. A lot as Elijah contemplated the fireplace, earthquake, and wind, questioning whether or not God was talking to him by them, we additionally surprise about God’s voice and presence in our lives. We search to discern God’s work amongst us, a follow for which we now have biblical pointers however few absolute commandments. For instance, if a voice tells us to kill somebody or to steal, we all know the commandments that prohibit these decisions. Voices and leadings from God on issues for which there are a lot of good decisions are tougher to discern, and we do nicely to verify these out in session with our religion group, scripture, historic custom, private expertise, and purpose.
Reflection on the Motion of the Spirit
With all this discuss of religious reflection and listening to God, you might be pondering: How do we all know it’s God we’re experiencing, and never simply our ego or creativeness? How do we all know when God’s Spirit is shifting, main, or encouraging us? We’ve good purpose to be cautious about saying we “hear God’s voice,” as a result of we’ve seen examples of individuals claiming to be performing on God’s behalf whereas doing ungodly issues!
We will take a look at what we consider are messages from God by figuring out if they’re in step with Jesus’s Nice Commandment: love God and love your neighbor as your self (Matthew 22:37–38). We additionally take a look at messages to see if they’re in step with what we find out about God from scriptures that echo that Nice Commandment.
Need to be taught extra about religious path for congregations? Chad Abbot and I’ve a e book from Fortress Press on this, Incline Your Ear: Cultivating Non secular Awakening in Congregations.
