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Wallace SC&W
Rev. Stephen C. Wallace
SPIRITUAL MATURITY
Implementing Spiritual Disciplines
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
2 Peter 3:18
Prayer:
1. Which factors effect your frequency and consistency in prayer:
___ Comfort level with God-----------
__increases prayer __decreases prayer
___ Confidence level ------------------
__increases prayer __decreases prayer
___ Meaningfulness -------------------
__increases prayer __decreases prayer
___ Social Support --------------------
__increases prayer __decreases prayer
___ Difficult Situation ----------------
__increases prayer __decreases prayer
___ Positive Situation -----------------
__increases prayer __decreases prayer
___ Other ________________________________________
2. What is your greatest strength with prayer?
3. What is your greatest struggle or need in regards to prayer?
4. What is the ‘content’ of your prayers: (place the % by each)
____ Praising God
____ Thanking God
____ Asking for something
____ Sharing wrongs done and seeking guidance/forgiveness
____ Listening
____ Conversing about life (sharing feelings & general thoughts)
____ Acknowledging God’s presence
____ Other: ________________________________________
5. How do you pray? (check all that apply)
____ In your own words
____ In song
____ Through doing Art (painting, sculpture, etc.)
____ In the words of another (devotional books, etc.)
____ In the words of Scripture (Psalms, Lord’s Prayer, etc.)
____ In tongues
____ In images
____ Other ____________________________________
6. How much time is spent praying for (give %)
___ Yourself
___ Your family
___ Your friends and acquaintances
___ Your Church
___ The Nation & World
___ God’s will to be seen and done
___ Other: ______________________________________
7. How much time is spent:
_____ Talking to God…… _____ listening to God
8. What keeps you from spending prayer time in “listening”?
___ I don’t know how
___ I don’t know if I hear God accurately
___ It seems arrogant
___ I already spend enough time listening
___ Impatience
___ I don’t expect God to speak
___Other: ____________________________________
9. How frequently do you pray?
___ Constantly (always with God’s presence)
___ Several times a day
___ Daily
___ Every Few Days
___ Every So Often
___ Rarely
___ Never
___ It varies from week to week or with different times of year ---
Why? _________________________________________
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The Next Step: How to Grow in your Spiritual Maturity
(specific suggestion to questions in the inventory are labeled Q + the number of the question)
Prayer:
Q.1 – Commit to a regular scheduled prayer time. Evaluate the
areas causing the decreased frequency in prayer and what specifically
diminishes it. Look for individuals whose support is most important to
your ability to pray and identify what they can do to help. Ask them to
help you be more consistent.
Perhaps look at the location or setting where you find prayer the most powerful
and fulfilling and where you find it hollow or difficult to connect with God (e.g.
outdoors, in a chapel, in a quiet and simple room, with others, preparing for a
project or rally).
Q.3 – In looking at your area of greatest need seek out reference material
to study from the internet or your local bookstore. Look for workshops
on the area or ask church leadership if they have something (or could create
something) on the area. If what you need is accountability, find someone you
trust to be an ‘encourager’, set up guidelines for what you need them to do,
and maybe even have a contract giving them permission to be in this role.
Q.4 -Focus (e.g. for a week) upon each of these topics of prayer:
___ Praise (e.g. this is celebrating who God is as opposed to
what God has specifically done for us. This can be done by
looking at nature and sharing your thoughts about God’s
majesty, imagination, creativity, power, personality, love,
wisdom, etc. Go through the alphabet and come up with
as many descriptive words about God for each letter as
you can.)
___ Thanks (e.g. list all the things that you have to be grateful
about, paint a picture to God expressing your gratitude,
write a thank you note to God each day for that week.)
___ Needs (e.g. make symbols of what you most want or need,
ask God for what you desire and then reflect on what God’s
answer is for that request, ask family and friends for prayer
requests and pray one day a week/month for them)
___ Sharing Yourself (e.g. write wrongs done on paper and
offer them to God by burning them, bring to God areas of
struggle, hurt or concern and ask for the Lord to guide you
in seeing the path to take and any repair needing to be done).
Share celebrations and joys knowing that God loves you.
Imagine what you would say about your situation to a best
friend and then tell that to God.
___ Being with God (walking each moment in the Lord’s presence)
Talk with God about your thoughts and feelings, questions or
what you notice. Work to keep God in the forefront of your
thoughts. Select an item to remind you to be with God (e.g. penny,
marble, cross, etc.) Or pick certain times or activities and
each time they occur focus on God (e.g. each time you look at
watch think about what you want to share with God at that moment)
Q.5 -Try some of these methods of prayer:
___ Guided Imagery
___ Pray the Psalms (Ps. 29-awe of God, Ps 30-God’s helpfulness,
Ps 32-repentance & forgiveness, Ps 73-envy, Ps 70-fear, Ps 77-despair)
___ Pray a Song (e.g. make a song a prayer- “More Precious than Silver”)
___ Hour(s) of Silence (Ask for God to share with you and then see
what comes to mind)
___ Prayer of Listening (read Scripture and reflect on what God wants
to tell you in it, pay attention to your physical and emotional feelings
about this time or the Scripture)
___ Pray through art (pottery, painting, sand art, etc.)
___ Pray through music
___ Meditation
Q. 6 – Schedule a regular time (e.g. 2-4 weeks) to try each prayer focus (ie.
Family on Mondays, Friends on Tuesday, World on Wednesday,
God’s will on Thursday, Church on Friday, etc.). Put together a file
into which you add specific concerns for each area. When the time to
give extra focus to that area comes pull out the file and lift up those
issues (ie. don’t give up your regular prayers)
Q.7/8 – Spend 3-15 minutes each day for a week listening for God.
During this time you might read a Scripture and listen for what God
might have to say about it, sit outside and look/listen for signs of
God’s touch and message, focus on an issue and let your mind/heart
work to sense God’s desires, or sit in silence and focus on God.
Perhaps hold an object (e.g. take a cross to keep you focused)
or use one word (e.g. Savior, Master, Leader) to center in on God,
as you breath in focus on what God is giving to you and as you breath
out reflect on how the Lord wants you to be transformed by it.
Being silent is not easy to do so don’t give up when you get distracted
or if you do not “hear” anything immediately. Silence takes practice
and we can learn from the art and discipline of silence. When you
get distracted simply refocus and remember that even if “nothing”
comes silence is valuable in itself.
Q.9 –Why do you pray this amount? Are you content with it? Why?
What would increase the frequency of your prayer or your desire for prayer?
Other resources: Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline”,
Maxie Dunnam’s studies: Workbook of Living prayer, Workbook of
Intercessory Prayer, Workbook on Spiritual Disciplines, Saddleback
Church’s 201 Class, Bill Hybles’ “Too Busy not to Pray”, John Ortberg’s
“God is Closer than you think”, Gary Thomas' "Sacred Pathways", Myra
Perrine's "What is you God Language"
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