Sustaining Your Spiritual Fervour - Getting Practical (2)

Last week I wrote about the importance of doing a regular 'audit' of our lives. I also promised that I would share a few things that I have found helpful in my own life as I strive to sustain my spiritual fervour. A few years ago, I reached a point where I was really struggling as a Christian. My Christian life had become joyless and dreary. I realised that I hardly prayed anymore and was struggling to read my Bible regularly. I was able to 'talk the talk' still, but deep down I felt like I'd lost my love for Jesus.

I found John Piper's book When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy hugely influential in thinking these things through (EQUIP book club are reading this in November - and I really recommend you read along!). It helped me see that I needed to work hard at fighting for joy in Jesus.

Here are a few of the changes that I made to my life, that have helped me to sustain my spiritual fervour:

Picking a time to read the Bible and pray - and sticking to it

The first thing that has made a big difference for me was when Dave and I finally stopped trying to squeeze daily prayer and Bible reading into the cracks and spaces in the middle of the day and went back to the old-fashioned pattern of each taking turns to look after the kids in the morning so that the other one could start the day with prayer and Bible reading. Because I know that Dave has made the time to do it, and the kids are off having breakfast with him, and he’s brought me a cup of coffee so I can sit up in bed and have a sip and wake my brain up, every excuse I would have had is taken care of.

Listening to sermons on mp3

Because I teach Sunday school and we don’t have an evening service, it’s only in the school holidays that I get to hear the sermons at church. But because my parents very generously gave me an iPod for Christmas a couple of years ago, and because MBC tape the sermons, and because there are a few days each week when Dave doesn’t have to rush out of the door early, I can go for walks a few mornings a week, take the iPod and listen to a sermon as I walk. I usually try to make sure I listen to the sermon from our own pastor on the previous Sunday – not just because he’s a really good preacher but also because he’s my pastor, and I’m part of that church – and then I also try to download and listen to a few other talks by good preachers from Australia and overseas. It’s a really invigorating, challenging, encouraging way to start the day.

A regular retreat

One more idea that has made a difference to me in recent years is one that came from Shopping for Time. It’s not the ‘get up at 5am’ strategy – I really don’t think that would work for me at the moment! – but it’s another idea in that book. It’s the idea of going away for a weekend once a year, by yourself or maybe with a couple of other women for the purpose of spending an extended period of time alone without distractions. We take the time out to to do that work of thinking, praying, evaluating, reorganising our lives and our routines around the priorities of the gospel.

Last year I went away with a friend from church who I meet up with fortnightly during the year. We went and stayed at her mother-in-law’s place in the mountains and individually looked at all areas of our lives - how we can serve how husbands better, what things we need to work on and address with our kids, what ministries we can and can’t commit to, and how to find the time to do the hard work of daily Bible reading and prayer. We're planning another 0ne early term 4, which I'll fill you in on!

These approaches aren't obviously for everyone. We all have our particular challenges and temptations and opportunities. So I would really like to hear from you. What have you found helpful in sustaining your spiritual fervour?

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