{"id":820,"date":"2011-01-25T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T06:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2011-01-25T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T06:00:43","slug":"a_spiritual_discipline_or_spiritual_rut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/25\/a_spiritual_discipline_or_spiritual_rut\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it a Spiritual Discipline or a Spiritual Rut?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just finished my daily devotions.<\/p>\n<p>Was it a spiritual discipline, or a spiritual rut?<\/p>\n<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\u00a0\u00a0 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\u00a0\u00a0 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\u00a0\u00a0 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\u00a0\u00a0 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>I just finished my daily devotions. Was it a spiritual discipline, or a spiritual rut? 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&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":[3,86,7],"tags":[525,529,532,534,552,560,561,562,565],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-development","category-leadership","tag-breathe-life","tag-challenge-for-you","tag-daily-devotions","tag-disciplines","tag-practices","tag-spiritual-discipline","tag-spiritual-rut","tag-spiritual-sails","tag-stagnant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","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=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}