{"id":1044,"date":"2011-04-26T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T06:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2011-11-24T19:42:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-24T19:42:17","slug":"re-post-was-it-a-spiritual-discipline-or-a-spiritual-rut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/26\/re-post-was-it-a-spiritual-discipline-or-a-spiritual-rut\/","title":{"rendered":"RE-POST &#8211; Was it a spiritual discipline, or a spiritual rut?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-821\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/desk_sleep-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"guy sleeping at his desk\" width=\"270\" height=\"180\" \/>On December 31<sup>st<\/sup> I finished reading the bible cover to cover for the um-teenth time.<\/p>\n<p>Spiritual discipline or spiritual rut?<\/p>\n<p>I meet for breakfast every Thursday with two trusted Christian friends for prayer, encouragement and accountability.<\/p>\n<p>Spiritual discipline or spiritual rut?<\/p>\n<p>Each of these practices can be good and important components to a Christ-centred life. But I\u2019ve found that through endless repetition, sometimes these soul-filling disciplines can slowly become merely life-draining ruts.<\/p>\n<p>What can you do if your disciplines are becoming stagnant? Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned in my own life. I call these the four \u201cups\u201d:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Change up<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o   Do you usually read your bible for 20 minutes? Skip it for a week and take a walk with God instead.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Start up<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o   Maybe it\u2019s time to try a spiritual practice that\u2019s brand new to you. Never tried solitude? Carve out a day and give it a shot.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Serve up<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o   One sure-fire way that seems to work for me is to try taking the focus off myself and to look for ways to serve others.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Clam up<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o   Simply choose <em>not<\/em> to pray, but instead to silently listen for God\u2019s still small voice.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s my challenge for you. Honestly ask yourself if the spiritual disciplines you\u2019ve been practicing have somewhere along the way slipped into something of a rut.<\/p>\n<p>If things are a bit stagnant for you, try one of these \u201cups\u201d and see if it doesn\u2019t breathe life into your spiritual sails.<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What ways have you found to prevent a spiritual discipline from becoming a spiritual rut?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On December 31st I finished reading the bible cover to cover for the um-teenth time. Spiritual discipline or spiritual rut? I meet for breakfast every Thursday with two trusted Christian friends for prayer, encouragement and accountability. Spiritual discipline or spiritual rut? Each of these practices can be good and important components to a Christ-centred life.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,86,5,7],"tags":[532,504],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-development","category-discipline2","category-leadership","tag-daily-devotions","tag-spiritual-disciplines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1435,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}