I (Jordan) did something dumb the other day that I’m not proud of doing. I didn’t blow up at the umpire, but I certainly questioned his intelligence. I’ve been telling myself lately not to overreact to things and not have such kneejerk reactions to situations. A part of my spiritual formation, in becoming like Christ, I think I should be calmer in situations and take more time to pray. In the heat of battle of church league softball, I failed, miserably. It seems I have a long way to go in my spiritual formation.
Robert Mulholland Jr. says, “Spiritual formation is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ, a journey into becoming persons of compassion, persons who forgive, persons who care deeply for others and the world, persons who offer themselves to God to become agents of divine love and serve as Jesus did.”
I appreciate the clarity he brings to defining spiritual formation because I think we sometimes get confused in the muddled arena of “Spiritual Formation.” The confusion happens in how we talk about it, and what expectations we give for it. We say things like mature Christians pray, and read their Bibles. Or we tack on that mature Christians go to church every week. We talk about what they do, not so much with the fruit of their life. Mulholland, I believe corrects it.
While all of these things we assume a mature Christian does is accurate, this is not spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is an invitation to a process in which we become like Christ to be Christ for the world, to love the world as Jesus did.
I don’t wake up one morning and suddenly have the abilities to do everything Jesus did. That would be sweet, but that doesn’t appear to be how it works. The spiritually formed people we see in the world and deeply admire became that way through a laser focus on transformation through the giving up of control to Christ’s Spirit in us.
That takes Spiritual disciplines. Disciplines like prayer, fasting, meditation, scripture reading and memorization. If Jesus was the Word, and the Word was God, than we should work on getting the Word in us. That happens through the disciplines, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
So here’s the point. Are you a part of a journey that is leading you towards loving the world and living in the world as Jesus did? That sounds highly individual, and that isn’t the goal really. Are we, as a church, and a part of the Church, becoming like Christ and being Christ for the world?
That sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? To be like Christ, together, to show the world God’s love? That sounds like an awful lot when you consider magnitude of the love of Christ. I can’t even keep my cool in a meaningless game, how am I going to exemplify Christ in the world?
This is what the disciplines are for. Not that they magically make you a better person. But they are something that God has chosen to work through and use for his glory and honor. As we get in the habit of fasting, we learn that God is our strength. When we take time to focus on the Scriptures, it works its way in us that it eventually starts pouring out of us. This is the challenge, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” That’s Jesus words in Matthew 12:33 where he is addressing Pharisees (people who thought they were good but had evil things to say). Dallas Willard says, concerning spiritual formation, “Tend to the tree and the fruit will take care of itself.”
The point, spiritual formation is tending to our life with the long established discipline of prayer, coupled with a devotion to the scriptures through memorization, reading and meditation, as well as fasting, solitude and service. For a variety of reasons, these are the pruning sheers used by us, and guided by the Holy Spirit to make us a good tree that bears good fruit for the world.
Let us join together and bear good fruit for the world! Holy Spirit, go to work on our Life!
In Him,
Jordan Ickes
Robert Mulholland Jr. says, “Spiritual formation is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ, a journey into becoming persons of compassion, persons who forgive, persons who care deeply for others and the world, persons who offer themselves to God to become agents of divine love and serve as Jesus did.”
I appreciate the clarity he brings to defining spiritual formation because I think we sometimes get confused in the muddled arena of “Spiritual Formation.” The confusion happens in how we talk about it, and what expectations we give for it. We say things like mature Christians pray, and read their Bibles. Or we tack on that mature Christians go to church every week. We talk about what they do, not so much with the fruit of their life. Mulholland, I believe corrects it.
While all of these things we assume a mature Christian does is accurate, this is not spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is an invitation to a process in which we become like Christ to be Christ for the world, to love the world as Jesus did.
I don’t wake up one morning and suddenly have the abilities to do everything Jesus did. That would be sweet, but that doesn’t appear to be how it works. The spiritually formed people we see in the world and deeply admire became that way through a laser focus on transformation through the giving up of control to Christ’s Spirit in us.
That takes Spiritual disciplines. Disciplines like prayer, fasting, meditation, scripture reading and memorization. If Jesus was the Word, and the Word was God, than we should work on getting the Word in us. That happens through the disciplines, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
So here’s the point. Are you a part of a journey that is leading you towards loving the world and living in the world as Jesus did? That sounds highly individual, and that isn’t the goal really. Are we, as a church, and a part of the Church, becoming like Christ and being Christ for the world?
That sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? To be like Christ, together, to show the world God’s love? That sounds like an awful lot when you consider magnitude of the love of Christ. I can’t even keep my cool in a meaningless game, how am I going to exemplify Christ in the world?
This is what the disciplines are for. Not that they magically make you a better person. But they are something that God has chosen to work through and use for his glory and honor. As we get in the habit of fasting, we learn that God is our strength. When we take time to focus on the Scriptures, it works its way in us that it eventually starts pouring out of us. This is the challenge, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” That’s Jesus words in Matthew 12:33 where he is addressing Pharisees (people who thought they were good but had evil things to say). Dallas Willard says, concerning spiritual formation, “Tend to the tree and the fruit will take care of itself.”
The point, spiritual formation is tending to our life with the long established discipline of prayer, coupled with a devotion to the scriptures through memorization, reading and meditation, as well as fasting, solitude and service. For a variety of reasons, these are the pruning sheers used by us, and guided by the Holy Spirit to make us a good tree that bears good fruit for the world.
Let us join together and bear good fruit for the world! Holy Spirit, go to work on our Life!
In Him,
Jordan Ickes