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Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition: A Workbook
Copyright © 1995 by Steve Harper.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. For information, write Upper Room Books®, 1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212.
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Upper Room®, Upper Room Books®, and design logos are trademarks owned by The Upper Room®, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise designated, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations designated RSV are from The Revised Standard Version, copyright © 1952 (2nd edition, 1971) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.
Cover Design and Photograph: Steve Laughbaum
Interior Design: Charles Sutherland
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 95-60923
ISBN: 978-0-8358-0740-1
Printed in the United States of America
For Jeannie,
My wife, best friend, and spiritual guide
On the occasion of our twenty-fifth year of marriage
CONTENTS
Week Two
Constant Company with Christ
Week Three
The All-Sufficient Word
Week Four
Food for the Journey
Week Five
Hunger for Righteousness
Week Six
Life Together
Week Seven
Into the World
Millions of people, longing for something more, hunger for God. This hunger is as evident in the church as it is in the culture. Christians are tired of playing church and believe that the time has come either to get with it or get out. The desire for solid, spiritual formation is greater now than at any other period in my lifetime. Institutional religion has proven itself impotent to provide abundant life. We desire something more.
We are people of the Book. We take our cues and receive our marching orders from scripture. We believe God speaks the ultimate word (revelation) and we respond. We are not interested in a spirituality foreign to or isolated from the Bible. At the same time, however, we believe God has spoken through tradition. We believe the great cloud of witnesses is filled with saints whose lives and teachings illumine our path and help us interpret the Book as we apply its timeless truths to ourselves and our situation.
One such person is John Wesley. By examining his life and ministry we can uncover rich, practical ideas for strengthening our devotional lives. This workbook is designed to provide you with personal enrichment as you use Wesley as a window through whom to view the spiritual life. If you stop with him, you will miss the point. If you pass through him into Christ, you will be blessed. If you use him as a guru, you will be disappointed. If you use him as a guide, you will find yourself delighted.
If Wesley could say anything about the spiritual life to contemporary Christians, it might well be, “God does not call you to have a devotional time; God calls you to live a devotional life.” A look at his massive writings reveals that, for him, the devotional life was much more related to the entirety of his experiences than to specific prayer times. Without question Wesley observed fixed times of devotion—and did so for more than sixty years! But to define his spiritual life by those times alone would miss the full picture of his spirituality. For him, every moment was a God moment, an occasion for God to reveal and for him to respond. As you begin this workbook, you will have many moments in which to reflect personally and deeply on your spiritual life.
A word of caution: One of the greatest dangers in contemporary spiritual formation is the temptation to turn it into another program. We are so good at this in the church. But if we attempt to make the spiritual life an event, it will die. And it should. For we will have reduced the life of God in the human soul to rules and regulations, fads and emphases, lists and techniques. We will have forgotten the key element Wesley would want us to remember: the spiritual life is not a part of life; it is life.
So use this workbook as a means, not an end. Use it as an opportunity, not as a compartment. Use it as an avenue of grace, not a measurement of maturity. Only then will you know devotional life in the Wesleyan tradition.
The Formative Process
Spiritual formation cannot be programmed, but it can be directed. This workbook is designed to encourage and facilitate a formative experience for you. It is contemporary in format, yet related to ancient practices that have proven their value. Each day will follow a fourfold path of reading, reflecting, recording, and relating.
You will begin each day by reading a brief text that highlights some aspect of devotional life in the Wesleyan tradition. The reading is intended to center and focus you in a rich, but limited, aspect of the spiritual life. It will normally reveal some insight from Wesley, but its primary purpose is to enrich your walk with God. As you read each day’s text, be constantly reading through or beyond it. Put yourself into the material; do not read it merely as the witness of a Christian who lived more than two hundred years ago.
Following each day’s reading, various exercises will guide you to personal reflection. This is closely akin to biblical meditation that ruminates and “walks around” a text until a particular “God word” emerges. The reflection exercises are designed to help you answer the question, What is God saying to me through what I have just read? Do not force this. Do not try to make something happen. Reflection is not magic or automatic. On some days, the personal “God word” will not surface. That is okay. In fact, if you try too hard to find it, it will only elude you more. Relax. Accept the absence when it occurs. It too is part of the formative process. True spiritual formation says, “God’s word, at God’s time, in God’s way.”
On most days, however, the reflection phase will yield some meaningful impression. It may be an idea or an emotion; it does not matter. It may emerge rather complete in itself, or it might appear quite unformed and fragmentary;
either way is all right. The time for recording is at hand, and this is the third step on your daily path in the workbook. One writer has called a journal or workbook a “blessing catcher.” That is the point of the reflection phase. It provides you the means to store the impression