Renovation of the Heart
The “Beyond Within” and the Way of Jesus
Introducing Spiritual Formation (2|4)
Pages 8-13
• The Human “Within”
• The “Spiritual” Aspects of Man
• Spirituality and Spiritual Formation as Merely Human
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Psalm 139 (NIV) You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand - when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
The Human “Within”
“What makes our lives go as they do? What could make them go as they ought? What matters most for how life goes and ought to go is what we are on the “inside.” This “within” is the arena of spiritual formation and transformation. The life we live out in our moments, hours, days, and years wells up from a hidden depth. What is in our “heart” matters more than anything else for who we become and what becomes of us.”
What is your response to this statement? Jesus says in Matthew 6:21 (NIV) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What are some different treasures in this world that cause people’s hearts to go as they do?
“The hidden dimensions of each human life is not visible to others, nor is it fully graspable even by ourselves. We usually know very little about the things that move in our own souls, the deepest level of our lives, or what is driving us. Our “within” is astonishingly complex and subtle - even devious. It takes on a life of its own. Only God knows our depths, who we are, and what we would do.”
What might be some hidden areas that drive you - that even you do not fully understand? What might be an area with naked honesty and humility where you say “I have no idea why I do that, think that way, feel that way, respond that way, etc.?
The “Spiritual” Aspects of Man
”Spiritual” is not automatically “good.” We must be very careful with this language. Nevertheless, in the sense of “spiritual” which means only “nonphysical,” the hidden or inner world of the human self is indeed spiritual.”
Can you describe in some detail the spiritual (nonphysical) side of you? And how does that side of you affect your actions and life?
Can it be true that “spiritual” does not automatically mean “something good”?
Spirituality and Spiritual Formation as Merely Human
”Spiritual formation, without regard to any religious context or tradition, is the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite ‘form’ or character. It is a process that happens to everyone. The most despicable as well as the most admirable of persons have had a spiritual formation. Their spirits or hearts have been formed.”
Do you agree or disagree with the idea that Jesus and his apprentices intend perpetual world revolution through character transformation?
EXTRA READING:
“We believe that spiritual action is the hardest of all - to praise and worship God, to thank Him, to petition Him for our brothers, to repent of our sins and those of others. This action, just as the taking of cities is action, as revolution is action, as the *Corporal Works of Mercy are action. And just to lie in the sun and let God work on you is to be sitting in the light of the Sun of Justice, and the growth will be there, and joy will grow and spread from us to others. That is why I like to use so often that saying of St. Catherine of Siena: ‘All the Way to Heaven is Heaven because He said I AM THE WAY.’”
- Dorothy Day (1897 - 1980)
*Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy:
Mercy is said to be a virtue influencing one's will to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate another's misfortune. It is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274) that although mercy is as it were the spontaneous product of charity, yet it is to be reckoned a special virtue adequately distinguishable from this latter. They are listed as • To feed the hungry; • To give drink to the thirsty; • To clothe the naked; • To harbor the harbourless; • To visit the sick; • To ransom the captive; • To bury the dead.