Hendrickson Publishers - Confession: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life

Everyday life today is busier and more distracting than it has ever been before. While cell phones and texting make it easier to keep track of children and each other, they also make it harder to get away from the demands that overwhelm us. Time, it seems, is a shrinking commodity. But God, the Creator of time, has given us the keys to leading a life that may be challenging but not overwhelming. In fact, he offers us tools to do what seems impossible and come away refreshed and renewed. These tools are called spiritual practices, or spiritual disciplines.

Spiritual practices are holy habits. They are rooted in Gods word, and they go back to creation itself. God has hardwired us to thrive when we obey him, even when it seems like his instructions defy our common sense. When we engage in the holy habits that God has ordained, time takes on a new dimension. What seems impossible is actually easy; its easy because we are tapping into Gods resources.

The holy habits that we call spiritual practices are all geared to position us in a place where we can allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us, to grant us power and strength to do the things we cant do on our own. They take us to a place where we can become intimate with God.

While holy habits and everyday life may sound like opposites, they really arent.

As you learn to incorporate spiritual practices into your life, youll find that everyday life is easier. At the same time, you will draw closer to God and come to a place where you can luxuriate in his rich blessings. Here is a simple example. Elizabeth Collings hated running household errands. Picking up dry cleaning, doing the grocery shopping, and chauffeuring her kids felt like a never-ending litany of menial chores. One day she had a simple realization that changed her life. That day she began to use her chore time as a time of prayer and fellowship with God.

Whenever Elizabeth walked the aisle of the supermarket, she prayed for each person who would eat the item of food she selected. On her way to pick up her children, she would lay their lives out before God, asking him to be there for them even when she couldnt. Each errand became an opportunity for fellowship with God. The chore that had been so tedious became a precious part of her routine that she cherished.

The purpose of these study guides is to help you use spiritual practices to make your own life richer, fuller, and deeper. The series includes twenty-four spiritual practices that are the building blocks of Christian spiritual formation. Each practice is a holy habit that has been modeled for us in the Bible. The practices are acceptance, Bible study and meditation, celebration, community, confession, contemplation, faith, fasting, forgiveness, gratitude, hospitality, justice, mentoring, outreach, prayer, reconciliation, Sabbath and rest, service, silence, simplicity, solitude, stewardship, submission, and worship.

As you move through the practices that you select, remember Christs promise in Matthew 11:2830:

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

Introduction

to the Practice of Confession

In my heart and my soul
Lord, I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord, let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love You from the inside out.

Hillsong United,
From the Inside Out

Our spiritual practices help us ask the questions at the heart of our lives. How do we live in Gods presence, and how do we make his presence known? In prayer we abide in Gods grace. We take up residence in Gods presence as God comes to us.

Where do we begin? We begin on the ground, with our hearts prostrate in repentance, in adoration, in praise. The practices of prayer and confession lead to this holy space, this fertile ground. The rough ground is broken up to reveal rich soil. From this place of humility, so much can grow.

Our attitudes and actions help us answer the important questions. How will we embody the gospel? Our body, mind, soulevery part of usare involved. They are intertwined so that there is less distance between thought and action, between the impetus to pray with or for someone and actually doing it. When someone takes time to pray with us and for us, that kind of love shocks us. But we seek to make it more common in our daily lives, to be the ones reaching out. Prayer is about being availableavailable to the Spirit, available to his love. Confession makes us available to the gaze of grace and mercy. We fear the prying eyes of those who want to bring us down. But God longs to raise us up. It begins with a posture of the heart and then works itself outward.

Prayer and confession are root disciplines. They focus on the core of what is essential to the Christ follower, our connection with God in Christ. They speak to what is at the center of our lives making our faith come alive. What does it mean for our faith to be living and active? God moves in us and moves us from the inside out. Our concerns shift from our own pain to the cry of the world. We feel the movement of the Spirit.

Sometimes the hardest part is showing up. Prayer and confession are about showing up and about what God shows us when we do: his unlimited love. By faith we have been brought to the banquet. In the end, time spent with God is not wasted. Time to sit at Jesus feet, to reflect, to meditate, to strip away all our excuses, obstacles, and distractions. Our practice brings us here, into the presence of God, all for his glory. We are made right to bring his light to the world. God has bigger plans than just our own peace. He wants it for the whole world. Practicing prayer and confession gives us the chance to be peacemakers, to be a place where his glory dwells. We are changed not just to sit on our couches satisfied and sanctified, but in order to bring change and be change in the world. From this spiritual discipline, others can take root and flourish. From this practice, other practices emerge. These are at the core of our calling.