To maintain our relationship with
God, we are required to be holy. Today many times people think that it is
impossible to be holy because holiness is no longer practical today, not
attainable, and is not measurable. However holiness is proven possible since
Jesus has died for us and forgives our sins which cause us to be unholy. To
maintain our holiness it is necessary for us to maintain our sanctity;
moreover, to be sanctified we need spiritual discipline such that without
spiritual discipline we cannot be sanctified. We can say therefore that the
purpose of the spiritual discipline is to know or build relationship God.
Spiritual discipline is a combination between two factors which are the factor
of attitude and the practice. Spiritual discipline does not only depend the
practice where we pray and read our Bible, but depends also on our attitude;
therefore, we should maintain the right attitude of loving God as we practice
our spiritual discipline. Human nature has the tendency not to love God;
consequently, having the tendency to set the wrong attitude including in their
spiritual discipline.
In the world today, people tend
to face problems with their spiritual discipline where they think it's not
important; moreover, some Christians even neglect their spiritual discipline
dropping out from the church although they still admit that they love God.
According to them the spiritual discipline has no value, but it's just wasting
their time. People neglect their spiritual disciplines because of the distractions,
especially in the modern era today. Some examples of the distractions could be
occupations, social, and entertainment or leisure; consequently, people were
not able to develop a good relationship with God. Without a good relationship
with God, life will feel so much harder.
People should understand that
they will not be able to build a relationship with God without their spiritual
discipline since it is necessary to maintain our sanctity in the eye of the
Lord; therefore, people should prepare a time and energy because the spiritual
discipline should be cultivated with time and energy. When people were able to
develop or build a relation with God, their life will therefore become much
easier. Although building the spiritual discipline may take our time and
energy, we will not loose since the benefit and blessings of spiritual
discipline are so much more.
Personally, I was having trouble
maintaining a good spiritual discipline lately. Most of the time because of my
bad time management I wasn't able to finish my homework, and some other time,
even though I have a free time and finished all my homework, I would rather use
it to browse the internet rather than for my spiritual discipline. I should be
ashamed for myself for not having a good spiritual discipline because both my
parents maintain a good spiritual discipline; moreover, I have a special prayer
room in my house that God have provided for me and my family. My mom and dad
have also been encouraging me to maintain my spiritual discipline. I should
therefore, manage my time better and commit to myself to maintain my spiritual
discipline. I will set an alarm on my system that will remind me to pray every
day. Secondly, I should also not forget to maintain a good attitude when practicing
my spiritual discipline. Currently I always read my Bible every day at night,
but I realize that I'm only doing it as a routine; I didn't do it out my true
heart of loving God. Moreover, I'm giving God my left over time making Him as
the lowest priority from my daily activity. I should set a right time to read
my Bible so that I may set God as my priority and also do it because of my
gratefulness to God rather than because of a routine.
As a conclusion, to build a good
relationship with God, holiness and sanctity is required in us as a sinful
human being. Without a spiritual discipline, it is impossible for us to
sanctify ourselves. In the modern days today, people tend to neglect their
spiritual discipline because they think that maintaining spiritual discipline
is just a waste of time and energy; moreover, nowadays there are so many
distraction such as occupation, leisure, and also social. That distract us from
maintaining a good spiritual discipline; consequently, they were not able to
build a good relationship with God and life would be so much difficult for them.
People should be able to understand that if they were able to maintain a good relationship
with God through spiritual discipline, their life will be so much easier and
they will receive more blessings in their life.