Spiritual Disciplines for Deeper Intimacy With God and Spiritual GrowthSample

Spiritual pathways (2)

In his book Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas talks about nine ways people experience spiritual growth. In yesterday’s devotion, we dealt with three of them. Today, we deal with the rest.

4. Ascetics: Some find ascetic practices very helpful. These people grow through fasting, solitude, silence, and simple living. This includes living with the minimum of worldly possessions and comfort. These people often live in monasteries and secluded places.

5. Activists: These people confront injustice, poverty, human trafficking, slavery, exploitation of people, etc. They will take on governments, organize marches, form pressure groups, use social media, and draw attention to a specific issue with all possible means.

6 . Caregivers: Loving God by loving others by caring for those who need help. Some will call it mercy ministry. These people run feeding schemes, hospices, psychiatric institutions, etc.

7 . Contemplatives: This group focus on adoration–deep intimacy with God. For them, the focus of life is intimacy with God, worshipping God, and experiencing His presence.

8. Intellectuals and apologists: This group grows spiritually by reading intellectual and theological books.

9. Apologists defend the faith and find ways to answer atheists, sceptics, and agnostics. They will engage with other religions and doubters/sceptics through discussions, conferences, and books.