Building on your spiritual foundation
introduction
SWAT Ministries has an emphasis on pouring into the people our leaders come in contact with. This could be the friends we talk to everyday or a stranger we walk past on the street. We find leaders who desire to serve children and adults in our local area. However, if we are sending leaders to pour into and love on those who we come into contact with, how do we continue to have the spiritual capacity to do these things? As a SWAT leader and more importantly, as a Christian, we are expected to find ways to grow outside of D-Now weekends and going to church on Sundays. With that in mind, This semester, we are going to focus on three effective ways to grow spiritually outside of SWAT: reading the Bible, prayer, and having a strong Christian community.
Knowing the Word of God
In this world, it is so important to be biblically literate, especially in today’s context since we are constantly attacked on all sides by the enemy. In order to spiritually prepare ourselves, we need to put on the armor of God, take up the shield of faith, and wield the sword of the Spirit. For example, in Matthew 4, Jesus is tempted by Satan, but He resists those temptations by answering back with the Word of God and its truth. Not only is Scripture a good defense, but we can go to it in order to find comfort and wisdom when we are going through different situations and life trials. With this in mind, in our next blog, we plan to touch on why reading the Bible is so important, how to best read it, and how to incorporate it into your daily life.
Power in Prayer
Another important part of our spiritual foundation is prayer. Prayer, as mentioned in our prior blog, is a spiritual discipline that both satisfies and strengthens our yearning for God. Throughout the gospels, we can see Jesus taking time to seclude Himself from the world and spend time with His Father, even when in immense distress before dying on the cross. We should follow Christ’s example and intentionally take time to talk to God. In this particular series, we want to focus on how prayer can allow our hearts and minds to be more intertwined with God’s desires. By being vulnerable and confiding in the Father, it gives Him space to come in and move. We also want to emphasize ways in which we can intentionally pray for each other while recognizing that we are conversing with an almighty being way up there. Personally, my mind goes in a gazillion directions when I pray and I often repeat myself and become distracted. We want to share ways in which we can overcome the enemy’s attacks along with learning more about God’s heart for us.
Impactful Community
Finally, Christian community is a crucial aspect in our spiritual walk. While it is great to have friends of all different backgrounds, we should always have a Christian group to fall back on to point us back to God. In Galatians 6, Paul reinforces this notion of bearing one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ. Strong Christian communities can hold us accountable in our Christian walk and allow us to have truth spoken over us in love. Through the next couple of months, we hope to expound on this idea of how by spending time with other believers, we can be encouraged and allow Christ to speak through others. We also hope to provide insight on where we can find these communities and discernment on whether they are a right fit for us.
Conclusion
End of the day, at SWAT, we only want our leaders to be prepared for the challenges lying ahead. These three core practices can help us grow in our faith and allow ourselves to be placed in a posture to be used better by God in all areas of our lives. By making them an integral part of our day, we can be fully prepared to go wherever God sends us and live out the life that God has called us to.
Small Group Interns - Rosa & Stephen