A lot of Christians spend their entire lives and grow very little. They would like to, but they either tried and quit, or they were never told that growth was a natural part of the Christians life. How many times have you heard somebody say, "I just struggle to stop..." These people are missing out on the full existence that Christ can bring.

So exactly how do we each develop fully as Christians? Spiritual Disciplines.

Paul tellsTimothy to discipline him self for the goal of godliness. If appeared to be good for Timothy in the first century do we all not think it is good for us?

One of the activities we have done as the church is place a lot of work into producing converts and we have devalued developing disciplies. Don't get me wrong me. I am not declaring that we must not work to bring men and women to Christ. What I'm suggesting is as soon as somone has made the choice to follow Christ, we should help them to learn to be a disciple of Christ too, and the spiritual disciplines are a great way to do that.

Another thing we have done is, try to make spiritual disciplines things they are definitely not. We focus on prayer and bible study, however not fasting, service, or other diciplines. I have even had people tell me that Jesus by no means said anything about fasting or he just didn't practice solitude. A fast perusing of the gospels will confirm that Jesus discussed fasting and exemplified solitude and service to people.

We reach maturity as a result of the use of the spiritual disciplines mainly because they allow us to get ourselves infront of God. Romans 12 says to deliver one self like a living sacrifice and that is what discipline is about. When we ultimately get away from our own selves and move our lifestyles thoroughly over to God we will quickly realize the Holy Spirit starting to operate inside us and transform us into the women and men God made us to be. The bible says many times that God will provide us with precisely what all of us desire if we have right motives, and really are seeking out God's will. I thoroughly think his will is for you to get to know him further and much better.

Don't believe this is a quick fix. You have devoted all your time up to now not offering yourself to him. Christ understands your heart and understands your motives. The book of James say if you need wisdom then ask for it, and that is what we need. Ask for wisdom to understand what The father is calling you to do with spiritual disciplines. Pray and ask for direction as you set out to discover where exactly you are going and what you are doing. Pray and ask him to help you open up and let him really have control.