Devotions based on Kenneth Boa’s book, Conformed to His Image

In our spiritual lives we need a balance between dependence and discipline. God works in us by the Holy Spirit but we are also told to work out our salvation (not work for our salvation) Jesus wants to reproduce His life in us and this is not done by human effort but by the power of the Spirit. But there is no growth apart from the spiritual disciplines. Our spirituality is not instantaneous or haphazard but is developed and refined. We are told to obey, walk, fight, hold fast, pursue, draw near, love etc. How much easier it would be if we would wake up one morning and just find ourselves mature and spiritual. But in order to become like Jesus we need to be more than spectators. We need the disciplines that Jesus engaged in such as solitude, silence, simplicity, study, prayer, sacrificial service, and fasting. These are not an end in themselves but a means to know and obey the Father. If we expended the same time and energy in cultivating our spiritual lives as we do in sports or hobbies, how different our lives would be. As we implement spiritual disciplines we will cultivate holy habits and find our character being shaped in such a way that it is more natural for us to live like Christ. Let us work hard but receive everything we are and have by God’s grace. Spiritual transformation is more the process of inner transformation than outward routines. “Spiritual growth is inside out, not outside in.”