Last night in worship we talked about the need to cultivate an inner life with God. To find some practice of the inner disciplines that can help us to go deep and not settle for shallow, surface-y lives. But to live from a place that is deeply tethered to God's life and love.
There are so many different ways to do this. I want to keep this simple as a starting point and insist that when I talk about cultivating inner disciplines I mean:
Some practice of listening to and communicating with God in prayer along with some practice of giving attention to God through Scripture
I want to share some resources that can help you as you explore the variety of ways that Christians have found to pray and give attention to God through Scripture.
Some books that you could get to help you explore these things, that have been helpful to me -
The Sacred Way - I really appreciate this book. Explores 16 different practices. He doesn’t do “inner” and “outer”, but instead divides the practices by “Contemplative Approaches” and “Bodily Approaches”. Each chapter gives a little history of the discipline, some theology behind it, and then spends the rest of each chapter giving you first steps in how to begin practicing.
The Celebration of Discipline - A Classic introduction to the variety of Christian disciplines. I was first introduced to this when I was in college. In many ways it is what got me started on this journey. The movement of our current Sunday night series is based off of how this book is organized: Inner, Outer, Corporate Disciplines. So last night was In; next week: Out; then Together.
Soul Feast - I love how this one is organized and written. Full of great quotes and questions to help you reflect further in developing a rhythm of life for yourself with the disciplines.
Benedict on Campus - Written by a campus minister to explore some of the practices that he has found to be most helpful and significant as he has walked with students over the years. I have used a couple pieces of it in some of what I have done among us. You’ll find it a good introduction to a handful of meaningful disciplines.
Each of these offer looks at multiple ways of praying and engaging with God through Scripture.
Here are a few more focused resources, which focus on particular practice -
Prayer -
Wonder, Fear and Longing - This is a great little book that wants to walk you into a number of different ways of praying that attend to the deepest places in us - places of wonder, fear and longing.
A Simple, Life-changing Prayer - Some of you have heard me talk about a way of praying at the end of each day called the “examen” that helps us to look back on our day and with Christ’s help, to begin to notice God’s presence and activity in our ordinary life. This is a little book introducing that.
Here’s a place you can find more about it
Open Mind, Open Heart - I have also found the practice of centering prayer to be meaningful to me as a way of beginning my day. It is a pretty different way of praying, because it doesn’t want to be full of words. It wants to teach us to learn how to sit in and be aware of God’s presence. This is a good introduction to the practice.
Reading Scripture -
Read, Think, Pray, Live - this is by the same guy that wrote “The Sacred Way” but it’s a little book all about the practice of Lectio Divina. I have used this book a number of time with groups to begin to teach this as a regular practice and have found it to be a good guide!
If you want to begin a practice of studying Scripture - pick a book you’d like to start with and then pick up any of NT Wright’s “For Everyone” commentaries (the link is to the Matthew, part 1, but he has them on all the NT books) and read that along with your reading.
A good study Bible can be helpful in beginning to dig deeper. Pay attention to footnotes and introductions and references to other Scriptures, etc. I’d recommend any of these - NISB; HCSB; WSB
Putting it all together -
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God -
A Gide to Prayer for All God’s People -
I’ve found these little guides to be helpful to me in giving me a rough outline of how I might pray and read in my time with God. If that kind of starting point can help you, check them out. My favorite part is all the quotes they give for each week.
And there’s SO much more we could get into with all this. But, here’s a start.
Please let me know if you have questions or something specific you’re searching for or wanting to cultivate in your inner life with God. I’d love to talk with you about that and help you to simply begin!
Grace + Peace,
Tony Jeck