Spiritual practices, also known as spiritual disciplines, are behaviors that help develop your spiritual relationship with God. In other religions, people may perform certain rituals to induce a so-called spiritual experience. In the Christian faith, however, the focus of what we do is always spiritual growth.  Jesus modeled these disciplines perfectly, providing a template for us to follow in our daily lives. Here are seven spiritual practices of Jesus that we should seek to emulate

In 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul instructs Timothy “train yourself to be godly.” Paul goes on to say, “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8).  Throughout the centuries, Christians have used plenty of activities (or disciplines) to train themselves to align with God so that he may do his work in them. 

The practices of Jesus have been recognized for centuries as the core activities of the spiritual life. In the same way a runner is equipped to compete in a marathon by the discipline of physical training, so training through spiritual disciplines frees us to live each day with the “easy yoke” and “light burden” Jesus spoke of (Matt 11:30).
Disciplines are exercises which equip us to live fully and freely in the present reality of God — and God works with us, giving us grace as we learn and grow.

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Those who think they are never wrong are impossible to live with and have a big problem.    The Bible warns us that those who claim to have no sin are liars.  The first step to dealing with sin is to get real and to own your stuff. 

Every sin has consequences.  Every sin has a cost.  The Bible says that the wages of sin are death.  The end game of undealt with sin is death.  Some sins kill us physically.  Some sins kill us emotionally or relationally.  People who ignore the consequences of their actions are dying a slow death throughout their lives and don't even realize why:  the consequences of their sinful actions is zapping all of the joy, success, and hope in life.  To deal with sin, we must be sick of sin - ready to cease and desist from the thing in life that destroys us.  This includes a change of mind and a change in actions so that we don't repeat the broken patterns of our past. 

Sometimes, we run from sin, but many times, we run to sin.  We run toward our sinful lusts.  We run toward our sinful selfishness.  We run toward the things that will eventually hurt us.  Why do we do this?  It's because sin is fun for a season.  That's why the Bible teaches that we should flee sin.  Fleeing isn't a passive response.  Fleeing is an active step to run toward Godliness rather than sinfulness.  Impulses must be overcome with fleeing. 

Is good enough good enough for you?  In most areas, no.  But if one area, your relationship with God, maybe.  As believers, we know that we are forgiven and free from our sin, but instead of living in freedom and victory, we live with comparison and settling for less than God's best for us.  Instead of making a holy God our standard, we look to others (typically who do things worse than us) as our standard.  As long as we a better than the worst person around us, we are good enough.  That's why the Bible instructs us to not compare ourselves to others.  That's why God says, Be holy for I am holy. 

 We wrongly think that we must fight our battle with sin by ourselves.  We created the problem so we have to solve the problem.  We think that we have what it takes to try hard enough to make a change but we don't.  That's why we are told to ask God for help and to rely on the strength of others when we are weak. 

The disciplines of Bible study, prayer, and worship are just three of the practices that can help you grow in your faith. The Bible is filled with teachings of things believers can do to focus on and grow in their relationship with God.  These are known as Spiritual Disciples.

We recommend Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life to learn more. 

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Some spiritual disciplines are practiced by engaging in good things like Bible study, prayer, and worship.  Other spiritual disciplines are practiced by limiting what we do.  Fasting is voluntarily going without food — or any other regularly enjoyed, good gift from God — for the sake of some spiritual purpose. Fasting is a way to get the pleasures of this world out of our souls.  Fasting is a way that God gets our full attention and we commit ourselves fully to Him.