On Saturday, March 11th our women’s discipleship ministry held a one-day event focused on spiritual discipline. The theme of the event was found in Psalm 63, “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.”
Spiritual disciplines include things like prayer and Bible reading, silence and solitude, generosity and humility, as well as corporate disciplines like gathered worship and taking the sacraments. But these things are not an end in themselves. They serve as a means of grace, ways to draw near to God. Rather than a checklist of religious duties to be done, spiritual disciplines are an invitation and an opportunity.
For this reason, women in attendance were invited to take 45 minutes in the afternoon and actually practice what they had learned about. Everyone found a quiet spot somewhere in the church building to sit in silent prayer before the lord and to meditate on a scripture or a name or attribute of God. Andrea Fox taught that meditating on scripture pulls the precious truths we discern with our minds through learning and study and pushes them deep into our hearts where the Spirit of God satisfies us with them.
At Sound City, we believe that God is not an idea to be grasped, but a person to enjoy. There is a deep desire in every person to passionately delight in something glorious because we were made to enjoy God. It was such a gift to gather as the women of Sound City to explore the ways we can continue seeking to experience God’s presence.