5 SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

PRAYER
A.            What is Prayer?
                In its simplest definition prayer is a communication with God. Here we can draw some implications of what prayer is. First, it is a two way conversation. Prayer is “man talking to God”, and “God talking to man.” Conversation means letting the other party know your feelings, your ideas, and everything that concerns you. It is making a connection between you and God.

                Secondly, we can see here that prayer is not only talking but also listening. Whenever we talk about communication, it should be two ways. One should be informing the concern to the recipient and the recipient should react on the concern. We say that prayer is communication; we can be assured therefore that whenever we give to God our concerns, then for sure he will give us an answer. The big question however arises, what if it is God who communicates to us? Should we not respond to what he is saying? As God’s children we have to learn to be sensitive to the word of God. When we pray it is not only giving our concerns but also listening to God and to his will.

                Third, when we connect with God, it is at the same time enriching a relationship with God. Communication helps build a relationship. When we are not communicating with our wife to whom we are bound, we are also destroying our relationship with her. And is the same in having a relationship with God. Creating a good relationship with our creator is something that we have to learn. We are bound to him and accountable to the things that have been entrusted to us.

                 Many writers and preachers quote Luke 11:1-4 whenever they talk about prayer. And here is one thing that writers usually miss. In the passage we can  see that right after finishing his prayer, one of the disciples asks Jesus, “Lord teach us to pray”. Many authors make a lot of this passage concerning the process or the mechanical part of prayer. Some mentioned about ACTS and some uses CATS (A-Adoration C-Confession T-Thanksgiving S-Supplication).

                It is true that the passage talks about the process in praying that answers the big HOW in prayer. Let us try to analyze however the main question of the disciple; “Lord, teach us to pray.” If we will try to take a look again with these words, we will be able to see the difference. The thing is, it is not a question but a request to Jesus to teach them to pray. It is different if the disciple asked; “Lord, teach us HOW to pray.”

                Therefore this passage does not only talk about the process but also talks about OBEDIENCE. It is more on “how can” they pray and set aside a time for prayer. How to pray can easily be learned, but praying as a part of our lives is a more difficult task that each Christian must learn.

FASTING
A. What is Fasting?
                Fasting is something that was practiced by many people in the Bible. This was a regular practice for many in the Old Testament.  Leviticus 23:26-32 teaches us that Israelites needed to fast for the Day of Atonement. King David in the book of Psalms 35:13 and Psalms 109:24 talks about fasting. Even Jesus himself fasted before he entered into his ministry in Matthew 4:1-2. The apostles along with Paul and Barnabas fasted as ask for God’s will in Acts 13:1-3.

                In its simplest definition, fasting is abstinence from any food for a certain period of time. Different individuals may have different periods of fasting. One can fast for three days, while another may fast for only one meal. There is no fixed or legalistic rule in fasting because fasting can be done for different purposes. We will be limiting our discussion to Biblical fasting only. In the Bible the longest known period of fasting was perhaps 80 days where Moses did two consecutive 40 days of fasting. It is not clear whether Moses ate anything in between these two consecutive period of 40 days of fasting so it could have been 80 days(Deuteronomy 9:9-18). Jesus Christ was also known to have fasted for forty days (Matthew 4:1-2). There was also a speculation that Elijah fasted for 40 day (1 Kings 19:7-8).

                But why is fasting a part of spiritual discipline? First of all, fasting can be a part of our repentance. Though it is not the legalistic guarantee of God’s forgiveness, true fasting is depicting our repentance and a humbling of ourselves down before the Lord. King Jehoshaphat (2Chronicles 20:1-30) called for Judah to repent, and to go without food for a time for prayer and intercession. The hunger that we may feel in fasting can reinforce our feelings for the Lord and our dependence on Him. This is still applicable to us today. Fasting can greatly affect our emotions and feelings towards God.

                Fasting can also be a part of prayer. We pray whenever we fast (I am referring to Biblical fasting). Through fasting we show our repentance to God and in our repentance we pray. Have you ever noticed that whenever we see fasting in the Bible, the people who were fasting prayed? A very good example in the Bible can be found in Ezra 8:15-36. Ezra knew that the people of Israel needed to be prayerful for God’s blessing. And they can better concentrate on prayer if they are fasting. Fasting reminded them of their dependency to God for food. It also gave them more time and concentration in prayer.

                Finally, fasting needs to be done only for the right reasons. Jesus in the book of Matthew 6:17-18 instructed the people, “17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Fasting therefore is not for a show off. It is not to be publicized and made into something that we can display as spiritual pride. One of the main reasons why many Christians nowadays do not fast is because of this problem. Fasting can become a common practice when people have forgotten the real meaning of fasting. Many people fast in order to get an answer for their prayers which are personal and selfish, rather than fasting in order to know God’s will which is a more spiritual reason.

Types of Fasting
                There are several kinds of fasting. They can be categorized by participation and by the method used. There are only two kinds of fasting when we talk about participation. One is individual fasting while the other one is corporate fasting.

                Individual fasting is fasting alone. This is usually done whenever we want to ask something from God. Maybe it is asking for his will for a certain decision we need to make. We can actually enumerate lots of reasons why should we fast. And perhaps most of them are more on individual reasons though there are people who fast for the benefit of others. In the Bible many people tried to fast individually. We have Jesus, Moses, Paul, and many others who fasted for personal reasons. But take note, some of them fasted not for personal reasons, but for the good of others like Moses. Moses did not go to Mount Sinai for his own purpose. He went there for the good of Israelites and as commanded to him by God.

                Corporate fasting on the other hand is a kind of fasting where we fast along with other Christians who are usually church mates and fellow members in a certain Christian organization for a common reason or purpose. Many churches do this to achieve something in their church. Some do this for the preparation in the revival night. Some churches fasts for a new church building.

There are three main types of fasting based on the method used.

a. Normal Fast. Most believers use this kind of fasting. It is more on abstaining from solid food but not from liquids. Again, there are no fixed rules when it comes to fasting. Many Koreans preferred to use distilled water while others blend fresh fruits and drink only a natural fruit drink.  And there are also some people who prefer to use coffee. There are Christians who are against drinking coffee, milk or juice while fasting. Of course we need to be careful on what kind of liquids that we are going to take while fasting. I think soft drinks and especially alcohols are not wise to take during fasting. Soft drinks contain acids that may upset your stomach or may cause ulcers. Taking alcohol on the other hand, is against the purpose of fasting which is filling ourselves with the Holy Spirit and not the spirit of alcohol (Ephesians 5:18). The truth is, the Bible never specified what to drink during fasting. And we need to be careful in putting a set of rules if the Bible is silent about it. Anyway, our purpose is not just abstaining from food and liquid, but to give ourselves to God.                
b. Partial Fasting. This type of fast is very much like what Daniel and his companions in Babylon did. Daniel 1 is the story of Daniel and his friends being required to eat the food of the king which were offered to idols. Knowing this, Daniel and his friends resolved the situation by asking the one in charge to them not to give them the food of the king. Instead, they asked for vegetables alone. Take note, that Daniel and his friends abstain from yummy foods and eat vegetables alone.
c. Radical or Absolute Fasting. This is the hardest kind of fasting. This is not advisable to all people. This is abstaining from all solid food and liquids. Paul did this kind of fasting for three days in Acts 9:9, after he saw the Lord Jesus on his way to Damascus and was struck blind. Normal people can only survive at the most for 3 days for most people while 7 days to some without water. Prolonged abstinence from water can cause permanent damage to our brain. It is not advisable to do this kind of fasting more than three days. God does not want us to suffer from permanent damages if we are only asking for his favor. God is more concerned about the status of our hearts toward Him.
 

MEDITATION
What is Meditation?
If you will surf the internet using the keyword “meditation”, the top ranking sites will immediately appear. But when you start clicking on the sites, they are all about Yoga and other forms of meditations that have connection with the new age movement and Eastern religions. Even the internet affirms that true Christian meditation has been given a little attention in the Christian world. Many Christians know what the word means, but most of them fail to do it. There are more people practicing meditation in the secular world than in the Christian world – or in the Church, but they obviously won’t get the full benefit from meditation the way a Christian could.  

                Meditation has been practiced for a long time ago by many people especially by the non-Christian people like Hindus and the Buddhist. It is a shame to know that more people are practicing meditations hard as they can to follow the Hindu and Buddha teachings rather than to follow Christ. What about the Christian world? Do we exert the same effort in learning the true meaning of meditation? Thousands of peoples (perhaps millions) around the globe enrolled in meditation exercises and pay thousands of dollars just to learn the powers of meditation. Some join cultic movements just to experience the benefits of meditation. Most of these people want to experience relaxation and levitation. While on the other hand, most Christians claim to be meditating on God’s word but are not. Why? It is because meditation is boring. Before this chapter ends, I will teach you a simple exercise that will help you enjoy meditating on God’s word.

 True Christian meditation is not an easy task. Meditation is a form of discipline, remember? Is there any discipline that is easy to do? Prayer would be the best answer, but true prayer is still difficult to do. How much more if you are asked to concentrate on things that only involve God’s word and you and nothing else, not even your job or any other things that you love doing?

Does Christian meditation become a powerful tool in our lives as Christians? Does our meditation direct us to a place of quietness and stillness before God? Does it bring us to a state of enjoyment and adventure? Does it move us closer to God? It is something to think about. Let’s have a look in the passage below.
          
                When Moses died, God talked to Joshua about his task in leading the Israelites (Joshua 1:1-18). God commanded Joshua in verse 8 to meditate on the Book of the Law day and night, not to depart or deviate from it. Meaning, meditation is for better understanding and then to better application which is keeping the Book of the Law and not turning from it. This means devoting a time for reflecting and studying the word of God.  Meditation therefore is obedient, careful and persistent reflection on God’s Word.
   
                One, it is “obedient” because it is a command to reflect and study the word of God. We all know that God’s commands need to be obeyed. Disobedience is rebellion. Secondly, it is “careful” so that in implementation of God’s command, people will not fall into legalism, hypocrisy or wrong doctrine. 2 Timothy speaks to us that to correctly handle the word of truth. Lastly, it is “persistent”, we are to study God’s word so much that it becomes a part of us. It will change our character.

                In its simplest definition, meditation is reflecting or thinking about God’s word. Meditation however, though very simple to say, is difficult to achieve. It requires concentration. A peaceful environment is a big help to do this effectively. That is why it is always advisable to meditate on God’s word early in the morning where everybody else is still asleep or perhaps late in the evening when everybody is already asleep. The main rule though quite simple, is hard to achieve. We must concentrate and reflect on or think about God’s word.
 
                Meditation should not be confused with the other spiritual disciplines. Communicating with God is the main focus of prayer while fasting focuses on knowing God’s will. Retreat and solitude on the other hand, involves secluding oneself from the world in order to focus on God. Meditation however is a little bit different. In meditation, solitude is a requirement in order to reflect effectively on God’s word. Meditation involves studying God’s word and reflecting on it while retreat and solitude alone is usually accompanied by prayer alone (prayer is a universal spiritual discipline because all other spiritual discipline must be accompanied by prayer).  In addition, because meditation involves reflection it deals with our thoughts and mind. It is disciplining the mind before the Lord.

Taking a Plunge into Scripture
                The next thing that you will need to know is how to do a simple Bible study. This is the basic of “diving into God’s word.” Scripture is very complex and sometimes complicated or hard to understand. The book of Isaiah gave us the idea of how complex it is, Isaiah 5:8, 8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. It is true that we cannot fathom God’s thoughts and ways, but it does not mean that we can not to study the scriptures and come to understand them. As we have discussed earlier, we must have time studying and meditating on God’s words. Therefore, knowing a basic study technique is a must for us to understand Scripture.

1. Preparation – in my own experience - studying the Scripture was the most difficult reading comprehension that I ever had. I learned studying the Bible in a hard way. Nobody told me about its uniqueness compared to other books. You will find it the most boring book if you cannot grasp this lesson. But it will be your most favorite book if you will learn the basics of studying the Bible.
               
                I thought that I would be able to understand it by just reading. I was wrong. Now I learned that I need to prepare myself first before anything else. This book is very unique in a way that we can only grasp its content if we are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Without inspiration of the Holy Spirit, your reading and study will be incomplete and insignificant. This is where I failed before. Now that I discovered why, I believe you have the right to know as well.
What should we do then in preparation? 1 Peter 2:1-3 gave us an answer, “1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
                We have to get rid of deceit, hypocrisy and all other sins before coming to sitting down and eat spiritual food. And take note of verse 2, it is in the form of a command. Meaning we have to “desire” spiritual milk. If we desire for something, we will love to have it.

The next thing to do is to pray. Let me state this in simple terms, prayer is the “father of all spiritual disciplines”. It is the father because prayer is always involved in all spiritual disciplines. Colossian 1:9-10 gives us the content of our prayer, “9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God”. If you are praying for someone to be like this, why not pray for yourself that you will be like this? Psalm 119:18 is also a wonderful passage, “open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law.”
Now that you have prayed and have come to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you can start reading and studying the Bible. The following steps will help you discover many things.

2. Observation – In studying the word of God, we have to learn how to digest the ideas and arrange it in a way that we can understand it. There are many ways to study the scriptures. Let me tell you one way that is simple and not too complicated study. This will be very useful to you especially if you become a pastor of a small church or a Bible study leader.
What to Observe
                1. The first thing to do in observation is to ask the right questions while reading the passage. Use    the “WH” questions, What, Where, When, Who, Why and How. The idea is very simple, ask the right questions, and you’ll get the right answer.
                2. Look for the following while reading. It is wise for you to have or make notes where you can place your lists of observations. Realize however, that every passage may not contain all of them.
                a. Keywords
                b. Commands
                c. Main Subjects which can be the main character or the main topics
                d. Promises
                e. Warnings
                f. Repeated words, these are the words that were mentioned multiple times in the passage. If you find one of them in your reading in a particular passage, keep an eye of them, they might be the main idea of the passage.
                g. Questions, this is especially true with the Pauline letters, where Paul use lots of questions to prove his arguments. Even the questions that can be found in the four gospels are worth taking notes. A good example that we can site on this is when Jesus asked Peter three times (John 21:15-17), “Do you love me?”.
                h. Enumerations, Paul sometimes enumerate things – example, see Ephesians 6:12-13, how many enemies did Paul enumerated?
                i. Grammatical arrangements and use (this is a big part of apologetics).
                j. Conjunctions, the words “but, if, and, therefore,” etc. can give you big insights. For example the word “if” it signifies a condition, while “and” signifies continues or progressive actions. 
                k. Unusual, sometimes a passage in the Bible will give an unusual shift of topics.
3. Read again – There will be times that you cannot catch all of what you are reading. I suggest that you reread the passage at least three times until you understand what you are reading with the help of the Holy Spirit.
4. Interpretation – We must be guided with the general rules in interpretations first for proper understanding and for safety in not coming to wrong interpretation.
                a. The scriptures will not and cannot disagree with itself. Meaning, all Scripture will agree. And if you cannot find any agreement, it does not mean that Scripture is wrong. It just means that we need to keep looking.
                b. See the passage from the author’s view point. Do not give a meaning to what you are reading but extract the meaning from what you are reading. Be careful not to interpret the scripture in ways the author did not intend.
                c. Finally, there is only one correct interpretation in a particular passage, which is the author’s intended meaning. Take note that interpretation is different from application. We can have many different applications on a particular passage but there should be only one interpretation.

How to Interpret
 1. The first thing you did in observation was to ask. Now go back to your questions and put the rest of the information with it. What does it mean? How do they relate with each other, etc.? You may likely find it is still hard to understand the scripture. That is why we need to go back to God in prayer and claim 1 John 2:27 “27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.” Other passages: John 14:26, 16:13, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12

 2. Go back to your list of observation and arrange them in such a way that it will form an outline. I suggest that you go through it verse by verse. Do you now see an outline of what the author is saying?
Then ask interpretative questions. I told you earlier that right questions equals right answers. Here are some common “right” questions. There are more, this are just some.
a. What is the meaning of this word…?
b. What is the meaning of this sentence…?
c. Who is the author of the book?
d. To whom was this letter written?
c. When did the author write this book?
d. What do “if” and “buts” here stands for?
e. Why did the author shift for another topic?

4.   Use tools. As pastors, we ought to have tools. A carpenter does not go to his service business without carpentry tools. Just so for the pastor, tools are very important. I just want to add something, as pastor, please so nor misinterpret me on this. I met some pastors who said that they don’t need these tools that I’ve been talking about for they believe that God is with them and the word is already anointed. Well, just a comment, please don’t be arrogant. Tools are important even if you cannot appreciate it. Yes you are right in saying that God’s word are already inspired but it does not mean that you do not need them. Is there any carpenter who can do better work without using tools? Obviously, there is none. I hope that this book will become an eye opener to all of us as ministers.
               
Tools are not the Bible and are not the final source of authority. But they will do a lot to help if we pay respect to the people who made tools like this for us to use, especially for the purpose of interpretation. 2Timothy 2:15 speaks to us that we need to correctly handle the word of truth. Tools are made for this reason to help us. They can be a good friend to us if we know how to use them. Some of the tools that we can acquire are the following:
                a. Study Bible - I suggest, everybody should have at least one Study Bible. NIV Study Bible is good but I found more useful information with the Mac Arthur’s Study Bible. Quest Study Bible may also be enough. Study Bibles contain useful information and add-on tools like a concordance, Bible Handbook, Commentary, and mini Encyclopedia. It’s like a Swiss Knife containing all the basic tools but limited in its usefulness.  
                b. Bible Dictionary – This can be a powerful tool when doing research.
                c. Concordance – Pastors should have at least one of these. Most Study Bibles have limited           Concordance at the back pages. They can do the work for minor studies.
                d. Bible Handbook – They are good to have but are usually expensive.
                e. Bible Encyclopedia – They are very expensive because they can only be bought by set, but they are fun to be read and they have lots of pictures in them.
                f. Bible Commentary – Like the Bible Encyclopedia they are very expensive and come in volumes. They don’t have pictures or only a very rare if any, which makes them a little boring to read. But if you are doing research, they can become powerful tools. Just a warning, don’t be dependent on them or you will spoil the purpose of meditation. Just check on what they say about your passage. Also realize that commentaries are actually someone else’s meditations. They can be opinionated or slanted to one direction theologically.

                These are the tools that can be very useful in your interpretation. Most of them are expensive that our local pastors cannot afford. That is why I insist to have at least one good Study Bible-preferably NIV or Mac Arthur’s Study Bible. They are an all-in-one tool.

                There is good news for anyone who owns a computer with at least Pentium II with 20Gigabyte hard disk. You can own a one big Bible library with it. Just try to acquire at least one Bible Library software and you’ll have all the tools that you ever dream of. This will save you tens of thousands of pesos as compared to buying all the books. I recommend Quick Verse 7.0, Bible Works 6.0 or PC Study Bible – the latest version. Having at least one of them will be a great deal of savings for you if you already own a computer.  

                 For local pastors in Baranggays, I recommend that you try your best to upgrade a little bit. Continued practice in reading and understanding the English language will do a lot of help for you since we do not have Bible tools – except diglots – that have translations in local languages. But don’t feel discouraged because most of the people that you’ll be ministering to – people in the Baranggays - do not need Concordances and Commentaries. What they need is a pastor or lay leader who can love, accept, understand and take care of them. But it still does not mean that you don’t have to study. All pastors or leaders must continue studying and digging out truths in the Bible.
 
5. Application – This answers our most important question, “How does it affect me?” From here, we are going deeper in God’s word. We are now diving into its truths. This is where you digest God’s word; this is where you reflect on it over a period of time.

                Are you affected by what you have studied? What are your discoveries so far? I suggested that you make an outline of what you have read so that it will be easier for you to get the main idea of the passage. Making an outline is a great way of knowing and understanding the Bible. And from it you can make sermons, Bible Study guides, religious articles and religious materials.  Then you’ll discover that you can be a good writer.

                Write all the things that you have learned in the passage in an outline form. Don’t just write it. Think that someone will be reading it in the future and he should understand what you have written. In this way, you will also be storing valuable information that you yourself can appreciate in the next time you go back to your notes.

                Now, do you see what God is telling you? If you still cannot see it, repeat the process. The more you read the passage, the more it will be clearer and clearer to you. And the more it will be clearer, the more that you discover truths and God’s abounding love and grace. Just a tip in making an outline, it will be easier if you will deal the passage – especially if it is in the New Testament – paragraph by paragraph. Look for the main idea in each paragraph, then look for things that relates in it within the paragraph.

                Again, there is only one correct interpretation for every passage in the Bible but we can have lots of application. I hope you will enjoy your adventure in the scriptures.

RETREAT AND SOLITUDE
A. What is Retreat and Solitude?
                Most often these two comes together when we talk about spiritual discipline. They are all about setting aside oneself from the world. It is more on confining oneself in a quite peaceful place, away from any distraction of the modern world. This has been practical for centuries, first started by hermits and monks in the first hundred years after Christ’s time on earth. This spiritual discipline is very useful and sometimes associated with the three spiritual disciplines that we have discussed.

                This can be done corporately and/or individually. Let me explain a little bit. Most of the time “solitude” refers to individual solitude while we use the term “retreat” if we do it in group. I have experienced both methods. Going for a prayer mountain corporately – or retreat - is an adventure where you see your fellow Christians experiencing God’s goodness. In effect, you will also be encouraged to seek the same kind of experience. When we had a corporate retreat, it is like a Mt. Sinai experience. We went down the mountain; we feel relieved with many things and feel closer to God. It was a great experience.

(Matthew 26:36-45, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16. There are more passages that you can find in the Bible that you can find they are practicing retreat and solitude)

B. Finding the Right Place for Retreat
                There lots of places that we can practice this discipline. However, in doing this we have to remember one major and essential rule. Our goals for the retreat are revival and renewal and concentration on God’s presence. We must feel that we are away from the world and our sole concentration is to be on God alone. That is why we have to leave all our technologies behind especially cellular phones, or if they are really needed in case of an emergency, have a commitment not to answer any text messages unless they are very urgent and important, and never answer even a single call. You also have to leave behind your laptops unless your purpose of having a retreat is to write something. Or to make it easier, leave your cell phones and other concerns to someone to take care of it for you while you are away so that you will not have to worry about them while away. If you cannot do this, you will miss your real purpose of this discipline, to be alone with God.
Retreat Centers
1. Prayer Mountain. In my own personal experience, a Prayer Mountain was the place to go if you are planning to have a retreat. Prayer Mountains usually provide the basic things that we need for this discipline. They say that the best thing to get nearer to God is to be in-touch with nature, thus, mountains are the best place to go. Prayer Mountains give us a facility to us to feel safe from wild animals and at the same time allow us to feel the cool breeze of nature. Another reason is that mountains are elevated places where we can see God’s creation in bird’s eye view. Being on a mountain will make you feel to be on the top of the world overlooking God’s creation. 

2. Camp sites. Some of the camp sites that I know of are located at the foot of a mountain or on a mountain itself. However, the main difference between a Prayer Mountain and a camp site is that camp sites are usually used for corporate revivals and worship during camps. In my experience, the second best place to go for a retreat and solitude are camp sites. Most of the time camp sites are vacant. December, April, and May are usually the months that camp sites are full. In other words, the best way to do this if you really prefer to be at a camp site is to avoid these months -“peak season” for your retreat schedule.

3. A Mountain. This is similar to going to a prayer mountain, although the biggest difference is that Prayer Mountains have facilities while going to mountain by back packing is purely an adventure and being in-touch with nature. I would not advise going out alone back packing for your retreat. This is not advisable because it is very dangerous to be out alone in the wild on a mountain taking a risk from wild beasts. Have someone along with you, or you can organize a small group that can go with you. After all, this is a good thing to encourage other people to practice this discipline. Just be sure to instruct your companions that once you arrive at your planned site, there will be less talking and most of the time will be devoted for prayer and meditation.

4. Prayer Room. Most seminaries and other religious institutions have their own prayer rooms. In the seminary were I graduated – PBTS – we have a prayer room located near the “dungeon” were doctoral students work for their dissertations. It was very quiet place and a perfect place to have solitude. It has cubicles where we can sit or kneel to pray. It was covered by curtain so that no one will see you while praying. People will only see your feet to know that there is someone using the cubicle. I would love to visit that place again next time.

5.  Your Own Room. There are locations that are very far such as Retreat Centers, Prayer Mountains, campsites and mountains. You may not have any means of going anywhere because of lack of finances. There is good news, you can turn your room into a prayer room. It will cost you nothing except time. It is only a few steps away from you and not difficult to find.

However, there are drawbacks with this method. Your family may not understand the importance of solitude and they may keep bothering you with many things. Your mom or dad will be calling you to buy or do something or your baby must be taken care of. In short, distractions are likely, and you’ll have failure at solitude.

If you are planning for short time solitude where you can spend at least an hour, your own personal room might do the job for you. But if you are planning for hours and days of solitude, your room will not be the best place. There will be lots of distractions at home.

V. JOURNALING
                Journaling is simply recording your daily experiences whether it is about your school, spiritual life, family, etc, anything that you experience in your daily life. But for the purpose of sticking to the topic, we will be focusing ourselves on journaling as a spiritual discipline. When we do the four spiritual disciplines that we have discussed already, it is always best to accompany them with journaling. Through journaling we can clearly understand what God is telling us. Not only that, it keeps a record of our experiences as we continue our walk with God. Journaling will also be best done in quiet place.

Benefits of Journaling
1. It gives us a time to reflect. In journaling, we pause for a while and think about our experiences that have high lighted our life. If you are already used to journaling, you will find it fun placing your extra time in documenting your own life in such a way that you are learning from your own experiences.

                Journaling is more on reflecting our own experiences though. It is where we can learn from these experiences. It is a time where we are documenting the experiences that have affected us.  One author said that journaling is the “fountain of personal wisdom”. Well, actually it is more than that because it is not only a fountain of “personal” wisdom but also a fountain of Godly wisdom. Remember that we are to reflect on what happened during the day or what you are expecting to happen that day.

2. It allows us to release. There are dull moments in our life that we feel so empty and we do not know how to fill it. Many people, however, have found that journaling is an excellent way of personal expression. Expressing our feelings where we can pour them all out is beneficial to our body, soul, and spirit. Next, comes the importance of journaling as a part of our spiritual discipline.

                There will be times in our Christian life that God seems far away and beyond reach. We do not know what to do about our current situation but we want to know how to overcome it. Yet everything seems so dull and empty. We have lots of questions for God and we are so eager to have His answers, but to our dismay, it seems God has forgotten us. In my personal experiences, when I have had this kind of feeling, journaling my questions and weariness was a good thing to do. It released me from a heavy burdened heart and eased my inner sufferings. The best thing is, when God started to answer my questions to him, I was able to trace back those questions and what kinds of feeling I had at that time.  It then gave me wisdom and I learned something from God. 

 3. It makes us creative. Some people say that writing is a gift. Many are convinced that writing is a form of creativity for it is an art. A painter expresses his own feelings in what he draws or paint and so also the writer. Writers express their feelings in their writings, in words. . But of course in journaling, we do not write because we just feel like doing it and that we are expressing our feeling in the form of art. Journaling is both an art and a discipline. It is an art because we express our feelings, but it is a discipline because we need to do it regularly even if we do not feel like doing it.

                Journaling can ignite one’s creativity especially to those people who are in the field of writing. It challenges the writers to express their feelings, ideas and emotions in a purposeful manner. And this potentiality is not only limited to natural born or gifted writers, but also to ordinary people like you and me.

4. It helps us develop honesty. The idea of journaling is writing your personal experiences in an honest way.  If we are journaling, and yet the events that we are writing are fictitious, it is not journaling but simply writing. Dishonesty in your personal journals destroys its main purpose. It will not help you at all, not unless you are really writing something and not journaling. Journaling is all about honesty, open-minded and an open heart.

5. It teaches us to be organized. Many professionals practice organizing things especially the “what to do lists”. Journaling can be a good way to start in organizing. Simple notes on what to do during the day can be a good start. It will help us to keep tracking on things that we have to accomplish during the day or even a week.
  
6. It boosts our desire to continue to pursue God. As we write things about our experiences under God’s power, we will be able to see how things move along as God has planned. We will be seeing things in a different perspective. Instead of seeing your experiences in a limited manner, you will be seeing them in bird’s eye view. By then we will be able to appreciate God’s working in our lives. And after seeing His works in a record form, it is as good as if we are listing evidences of His presence. After seeing all these, I am pretty sure that that you will prefer to be under God’s direction than ourselves.

7. It shows where you are. Journaling helps you see your experiences in bird’s eye view. It will also help you know where you are. It gives you answers for your personal questions to God. It also helps you keep track of your prayer requests.
 
                Journaling is very helpful to us because it allows us to see ourselves where we are in our spiritual walk with God. There will be times that if we go back to what we wrote, it will encourage us in different way and give us the desire to get back on track. It is like preparing something for yourself that will encourage you when times of trial come.
               
                Another benefit of journaling is that it helps you see the flow of your own life as you take part to the history of the world. Journaling is the first step to having a biography. In one sense it is making an autobiography. I would say that the Bible itself is full of autobiography and biographies. Matthew, Luke, Mark and John, the early disciples wrote their experiences with Jesus Christ. These became the four gospel books that we are using now in our time. How about the prophesies that were recorded? Most of them were written by the prophets themselves as they experienced the presence of God and put it into writings that which became a record and became a part of our Bible today. Moses, Joshua, Samuel and others kept their history through writings. It is true that the Bible does not speak about journaling. But the Bible itself is a product of journaling.

                I watched a documentary film entitled “Who is Moses?” Skeptics tried to prove that the events in the Exodus were not true because of the lack of recorded evidences. They were questioning the validity of the records of the early history of Israelites, discrediting the book of Exodus. However, there are scientists and archeologists who have tried to search for more evidences of the authenticity of the events recorded in Exodus. They ended up concluding that the events recorded in the book of Exodus were authentic and reliable. We must be aware, however, that many scientists believe that those events were over spiritualized by the Israelites for those events to have naturally occurred in Egypt. But if those events can did occur in Egypt, why is it that the Israelites were able to attribute them all as God’s acts of power?  Moses, when he gave the ten plagues, did not know at the time, that a natural cause would happen in the subsequent events.
 
                Going back to our topic this example shows the great value of journaling. Of course, Moses’ intention would have been to record their history, but we must understand that it is also a form of journaling. How many stories are there of people long ago that until now, we still tell their stories? We tell their stories because we have read their written record in history, and many of them were product of journaling. Do you want to take part of the Christian history? Start journaling.

(This article is a part of the book written by Ptr.Vincent Olaer entitled "The Five Spiritual Discipline That Every Christian Should Know". You are not authorized to copy this article. Use this as a part of your research and personal reference only. Please, do not reproduce this. Copyright 2007 Vincent Olaer)

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Author: Ptr.Vincent Olaer