PERSONALIZED SPIRITUAL GROWTH PLAN Habits of the Soul

PERSONALIZED SPIRITUAL GROWTH PLAN

Habits of the Soul

Habits of the Soul -Prayer/Comunion With God -Regularity in Prayer Life -Healthy Diet -Sabbath Worship Gathering -Confession and Searching -Watching -Serving on the Front Line

Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, Creating Community (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2004), 61 -62. Over the years I have noticed that some people seem to equate spiritual growth with the accomplishment of a process or plan. They seem to believe that mature Christ-followers are those who have endured the equivalent of spiritual boot camp. If you have successfully undergone

a regimen of classes, seminars, and prescribed activities, you are perceived as mature. If you finish the list, you have arrived. You are discipled. Project complete. This perspective assumes that spiritual maturity comes at a point in time – namely, when the process or curriculum has been completed. Andy Stanley and Bill Willits, Creating Community (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2004), 61 -62.

1 Timothy 4: 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

See Hebrews 12: 1 -2

Upward: Connect with God Beside: Connect with Church Beside: Connect with Family Downward: Connect with Lost

Luke 14: 26 -33 states, If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me

cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe

it begin to ridicule him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish. ” Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with

twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Realizing that spiritual growth does not happen by accident, I believe that God is leading me to formulate a plan for next year in order to grow as a disciple. No two plans will be identical. Each disciple has various spiritual goals and differing areas of growth. Plans should be personally reviewed weekly and updated at least yearly.

1. Describe in a paragraph how you envision your daily spiritual exercises. Things might include: prayer, fasting, journaling, meditation, Scripture memorization, spiritual songs, family worship, time allocation, etc.

Upward: Connect with God Beside: Connect with Church Beside: Connect with Family Downward: Connect with Lost

Weekly Plan: Write down how you envision growing during a typical week. Plans might include: attending worship service, attending Sabbath school class, sabbathing, participating in service, small groups, additional disciplines, fasting, planning for simplicity and balance, etc.

Accountability Plan: Who will call/meet with me each week to ask if I am following my plan for Spiritual Growth?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13: 3435, italics mine).

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them,

and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me (John 17: 21 -23, KJV, italics mine).

Upward: Connect with God Beside: Connect with Family Beside: Connect with Church Downward: Connect with Lost

Matthew 4: 19 Jesus says to his disciples, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (italics mine). The Great Commission of Matthew 28: 18 -20 explains to believers what they are to be about.

What weekly small group or ministry team am I planning to be a part of?

Upward: Connect with God Beside: Connect with Family Beside: Connect with Church Downward: Connect with Lost

1 Timothy 5: 8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.

3. Monthly/Quarterly Plan: Describe any monthly or quarterly plans for spiritual growth. Ideas might include: spiritual retreats, appointments with a spiritual mentor, classes, time with family

4. Yearly Plans: Describe your yearly plans for spiritual growth. Plans might include: leadership development, personal counseling, courses of study, lifestyle simplification planning, reviewing your life core values, vision, mission and goals planning, spiritual pilgrimages, mission trips, seminars, etc.

Upward: Connect with God Beside: Connect with Family Beside: Connect with Church Downward: Connect with Lost

What spiritual goals do I have for this year? (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Timely) Include items 14. Plans might include: reading goals, Scripture memorization, breakthrough of sinful strongholds, new habits, etc.

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