Why Faith Practice?

Note:

These are not the circumstances I thought I would be sharing my first blog post in. I’m sure that I’ll have to update this later on, but I’ve been at home during this time of social isolation and thinking about all the things that I wish I had shared with people prior to not being able to see them LIVE and IN PERSON. Without any further ado, here’s the intro to my blog. I hope that you find it helpful, I hope that you find it practical, and I hope that your relationship with God flourishes in this season of isolation.

Why Faith Practice?

Have you ever been at church, or at a conference or workshop, and been asked to come up with a “spiritual goal”? You know, how people want to know how you are actively working on your relationship with God, where you are taking opportunities to learn and grow in your identity as a Christ-follower… yeah, I always think that’s awkward too. After all, it’s an intensely personal question.

So, I started thinking about the whole thing. I mean- if I want to improve my relationship with God, should I have spiritual goals? Isn’t that kind of the opposite of what I want from my spiritual life? Didn’t I want this area to be freed from the never-changing, on-going treadmill of achievement?

Yeah. I did. I do. But I also needed to acknowledge that relationships take work. And a relationship with God? That’s no exception.

But why is it that spiritual goals nearly always come down in two categories

1. Read my bible more

2. Pray more

It’s wild. If I were to guess, I’d say that 90% of people I hear answering this question come up with some variation on those two things. Now don’t get me wrong- I’m all about reading the bible and praying. They are cornerstone examples of increasing our knowledge and awareness of God, but if we know that they are so important, and we keep adding them to our list of “to-do’s” then why don’t we ever get around to doing them?

This question led me to learn about Spiritual Disciplines- or, as I prefer, Practices. Once I started reading about all the different ways there are to connect with God I became increasingly fascinated. If we are all “uniquely and wonderfully made” (Psa 139:14) then is it any wonder that there are nearly as many ways to engage with God as there are people in the world?

I think we need to take a step back from “what are you going to do?” and look instead at the question “why do you want to do it?” Once we figure out what our hearts and souls are longing for then we’ll be able to come up with an action plan (or, as I prefer a practice schedule) that feels life-giving rather than chore-like.

If you want to get closer to God in a way that makes sense for where you are in your faith walk, and works in the craziness of your life then check back soon. I can’t wait to share some of what I've learned so we can keep Practicing our Faith.

Love ya,

I’m all in on spiritual practices, if there are any you’d like to see featured, let me know! (by email) meghanlamatthews@gmail.com OR (on Instagram) @itsmeghanmatthews