Today’s post in the Growth from A to Z series has interchangeable keywords.  F can stand for either Faith or Fruit, and we’re looking at essentially the same thing — growing in our faith so we display more spiritual fruit.

This is a broad topic, so it’s a little tough to cover in a single blog post and, in fact, certain specific spiritual fruits and/or disciplines will be addressed more specifically later in the month.  At its most basic, though, assuming you have an existing faith to grow (if you don’t, then we need to back up and talk about a whole different question), it will grow through use (or we could say “practice”).  We practice trusting, and we practice certain spiritual disciplines that are intended to nourish and strengthen us spiritually.

Some of the more basic of these disciplines are prayer, Bible reading, meditation, and general obedience.

Prayer

Prayer is, at its most basic, talking to God.  That makes it pretty fundamental to spiritual growth!  It’s hard to grow in relationship with someone you never talk to, right?  And hard to trust someone you really don’t know.

Prayer is simple, but it’s also varied.  There are a lot of different ways to talk to someone, right?  Consider conversation with a significant other.  You might tell him something, or you might ask him something.  You might have a quick exchange in passing (“I’m off to work; ‘love you; see you later!”) or you might have a long, in-depth conversation.  You might have a lighthearted chat about the happenings of the day, or you might have a conversation filled with weeping over griefs and sorrows.  You might not even have the conversation verbally; it might be an email or a letter.

For this reason, there are a lot of potential approaches to practicing and growing in prayer.  This doesn’t necessarily mean one is “right” and the rest are “wrong,” and you don’t need to be overwhelmed by all of them if this is new to you.  Just start somewhere.

I’ve written a book of challenges designed to stretch and grow you in this area, in part by shaking things up so you don’t stay stuck in a rut.  It’s called Prayer Practice: 90 Days of Praying Outside the Box.  There’s also a kids’ version, Prayer Practice for Kids.  In all honesty, the kids’ version is newer and is done better in terms of design, etc.  (It really should be updated, but that isn’t at the top of my to-do list right now.)  The challenges are the same, but they’re arranged topically in the kids’ version, rather than over a 90-day spread, and the original contains an assortment of famous prayers and quotes about prayer that the kids’ version does not.  I’m not aware of anything else that’s as broad and varied.

There are other approaches, as well, though, like praying through journaling.  If you’re in a season of life that you have the time, you might experiment for a while with writing out your prayer during your quiet time each day.

You’ll also probably want to have a way of keeping track of prayer requests.  I keep mine in a 3-ring binder so I can easily access both ongoing reminders and short(er)-term requests.

Another option is index cards.  These work especially well if you ever have group prayer (as a small group, as a family, etc.) and want to be able to divvy them up.

Of course, a simple list might be all some people want or need.

Finally, apart from your specific times of prayer, it’s important to have an attitude of prayer.  What do I mean by that?  Well, the Bible says that we should “pray without ceasing.”  (1 Thess. 5:17)  We obviously can’t be actively speaking to God 100% of the time.  That would prevent our actually functioning in the roles He’s placed us in!  But we can have an attitude of prayer — that is, keeping a companionable awareness of His presence all the time.  The kind where the occasional comment as you work, etc. is normal and natural.

Ultimately, the most important thing about prayer is just to do it!

Bible Reading

Bible reading will be tackled more thoroughly later in the month, so I’m going to skip over it here, except to point out that if you aren’t reading the Bible, you won’t be able to meditate on or obey it.

Meditation

The word “meditation” weirds some people out, because we don’t hear it very often anymore except in the context of Eastern meditation.  The Bible talks about meditation — on the Word.  When you meditate on something, you think about it again and again, or you continually redirect your thoughts back to it when they wander.  That’s a pretty good description of what it means to meditate on the Word.

I find that this is easiest to do with verses or passages that I’ve committed to memory.  (It’s hard to think about something you don’t know!)

General Obedience

The final foundation is obedience.  In the book of James, we’re told to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”  (Ja. 1:22)  The Bible also tells us to “walk in the Spirit, and [we] shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”  (Gal. 5:16)  If we know the Word of God, but it doesn’t shape our lives, we’re not really living by the Spirit or by faith; we’re living by our own wisdom.  Then our faith just atrophies from disuse!

None of us do this perfectly, of course.  And God has a tendency of working hard on us in just one or two areas at a time.  (Thankfully!)  But what kind of attitude do you have about your life?  Are you content to go about your life doing everything in your own strength and making all your decisions in your own wisdom, relegating God to Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights?  Or are you cultivating a habit of making decisions based on “what God says about _____”?   (God has something to say about everything!  Not always directly, but there are always principles that can be applied for biblical decision-making.)

If you want to cultivate a life based on a biblical worldview, practice asking that question about everything.  “What does God say about _____?”  (Or, to be more specific, “What does God’s Word say about ______?”)

One Last Thought

There was a man who came to Jesus to restore his son, who was possessed by a demon that sought to harm him.  Jesus told the father that all things are possible if you believe.  The father’s response was to cry out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”  (Mark 9:24)

Sometimes the most significant need we have when it comes to growing in our faith is simply to acknowledge that our faith is weaker than we’d like it to be and call on God for help.