A Short Guide to Spiritual Disciplines by Mason King offers a unique perspective to spiritual growth. Instead of just listing specific spiritual disciplines and how to incorporate them into your life, King provides a holistic picture of a healthy and flourishing life with God. King identifies three main dimensions of life that, when offered to God regularly, can help Christians become vibrant and healthy: attention, emotions, and limits. These dimensions are the root to cultivating a healthy Christian life.
“The point is that if we want progress in the Christian life as God defines it -if we want to grow in wisdom and become truly human- we must get on board with the fact that becoming our future selves is a work of patient perseverance. The repetitive and continuous completion of actions and habits builds character, good or bad.”
King warns that this book may feel different than a typical spiritual discipline book as it is not a list of to-do items. Excellent practical ideas for spiritual development are provided, but the book goes deeper into what it means to continually surrender all of life to God’s good design for identity, belonging, and purpose. The book highlights the fact that our character is formed by things we inherited, things done to us, things done around us, and the choices we make in a fallen world. Spiritual growth requires patience and perseverance as our future selves are a work in progress. King challenges the idea that the goal of growth is to sin less. Sinning less is certainly a goal, but we must want to put off our sin.
“Our recognition and remorse over our sin -the fact that we even want different desires- is a sign of the Spirit working in us, evidencing our union with Jesus. In other words, as we do what we can to shape the ‘outside’ of our Christian lives with spiritual disciplines and sustained effort, the Holy Spirit shapes the ‘inside,’ and the gap between the two gets smaller and smaller until our outward living and our inner desires are united as one instead of divided.”
The book addresses the challenges of the modern world and how the attention economy is an continual hindrance to spiritual growth. The world wants to distract us from real life, shape who and what we love, and track it all in an ever-improving algorithm. The book highlights that the true cost of free social media platforms is the diminishing ability to enjoy life with God and bear His image in life with others.
“Growing as a Christian- moving forward toward the sanctified future self we’re meant to be requires us to work out our feelings instead of ignoring (or stuffing down) the emotional component that God Himself intentionally built into the human experience, and often the most profitable way to work them out is with a trusted conversation partner.”
Mason King serves as a pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He also serves as the Executive Director of The Village Church Institute, Groups, and Leadership Development. He is a former pastor at the church I attend and has shaped my faith in many ways.
“Our world has traded God’s wisdom for our feelings and access to information. The Internet in our pocket has leveled the value of experience and expertise. But access to information does not equal character transformation. Facts are not wisdom. Wisdom is the application of discernment to circumstances in pursuit of the good and beautiful life with God, and wisdom is found in God.”
Overall, Spiritual Disciplines is an excellent book for all Christians to grow in their faith. King addresses the challenges of the Christian in a modern world, and provides a way to deepen our knowledge, love, trust, and obedience in Christ. The book provides helpful and practical means for spiritual development, but goes further by highlighting the importance of surrendering all of life to God’s good design for identity, belonging, and purpose. King’s writing style is engaging and easy to follow, making this book accessible to readers of all levels of spiritual maturity. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to become a healthier and more vibrant Christian.
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A Short Guide to Spiritual Disciplines: How to Become a Healthy Christian By Mason King |