Summer is here, dear readers! We hope you are enjoying your vacations, local events, spending time with family and friends, and staying cool in the heat.
If you’ve had a less than carefree week than you were hoping for, I’m feeling the same way. Me and a few friends have had what we call “down weeks” – nothing particularly serious going on in our lives, but our moods and energy are drained.
This could be for a variety of reasons: weather, physical or emotional factors, anxiety, stress, etc. If you’ve been in a similar state for an extended period of time, talk to a trusted friend, pastor, counselor, or therapist about it.
If you’re feeling down, let me suggest that taking care of your spiritual side might help. That’s been the case for me, and the practices Christians call the Spiritual Disciplines can help you get through the summer (or any season) blues.
The other three benefits are that for anyone curious about the Christian God, they are an easy way to find out what God is like (and what He wants people to know), and if you’re a Christian, they can help you deepen your faith in Jesus.
Finally, these practices have been shown to provide a variety of benefits, both mental and physical: I love a good list, so here are four spiritual practices you can start using today.
• Read the Bible – this can be done at your own pace. I have started again with a plan I found online of reading 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week, 3-5 chapters. If you are new to this, I recommend starting with the New Testament and reading through to the end.
As the Bible Project states, the Bible is contemplative literature, so the goal is to read, reread, and think about what you have read.
• Silence and solitude – Our lives can become noisy. Our physical and mental health can be affected and we can become so used to the noise and the presence of others that we lose track of what is going on in our own lives.
Can you turn off everything and be quiet for 10-15 minutes? How about three times a week? Start by sitting down, praying that God would be with you, and setting a timer.
• Prayer – As theologian Wayne Grudem says, prayer is personal communication with God. It can be as simple as starting a conversation with God, who is everywhere. This can apply to praying for others, going on a prayer walk, or praying through the Psalms or the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-11.
Read a line, talk to God about it, take it personally, whatever it is, try doing it regularly for 30 days, and you’ll find that it will enrich you, it will free you from your lows, and as you draw closer to God, He will draw closer to you.
Gavin Jarvis is the senior pastor of Living Stones Church.
