How do you tell the difference between the Holy Spirit challenging you to read the Word more and the enemy telling you that you aren’t doing enough?

When we have spiritual disciplines, we can fall into traps on both sides of the road:

1. You do really well and end up putting your confidence in your ability and discipline, or

2. You don’t do well, and you feel like a failure

“All spiritual disciplines lead us to the realization that we can’t do anything without Jesus.” They help us realize that we need God’s help to meet with God.

There’s a difference between conviction and condemnation.

Condemnation = shame. You aren’t good enough. Have a pity party.

Conviction = love. God loves me, and I love him, and I want to express that more.

Listen for the voice of a loving Father. He knows what we need and what we don’t need. He wants to meet with us.

The value of the discipline is to keep you coming to God. If you aren’t intentional, you can gradually drift away. There are tried and true ways to meet with God. If I don’t have every discipline through every season, that’s OK.

Don’t seek an experience, but seek to show up. He’s happy to spend time with us even if we don’t have a mountaintop experience. Even if it was so ordinary you don’t remember it, it’s keeping you alive.

There are many ways to meet with God. Learn them. Try them. Incorporate them all into your life in some way. Evangelism, service, fellowship, celebration, prayer, fasting, studying Scripture, silence, and more.

In “Sacred Pathways”, Gary Thomas explains that there are different ways that God relates to each of His kids. Those that help you feel close to God incorporate daily, and the others not neglected, but perhaps done less often.