Please CLICK HERE for the Crave Study Guide PDF.

thanks,
Tim

Our sermon series, CRAVE, is focused on helping find the sweet spot between discipline and desire as we follow Jesus Christ. The first week focused on identifying and evaluating our desires, and seeing how our ultimate fulfillment comes in finding and following Jesus Christ. After examining the life of Christ, we see that, to follow him means we live like he did: with disciplined desire. Thus, the lives of those following Jesus will be characterized by practicing what are commonly called spiritual disciplines in order to grow our capacity to love and serve Him and His creation.

To dive further into this topic, I recommend you start with these two books:

• Desire by John Eldredge
• Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

To go deeper, consider these books:

• Desiring God by John Piper
• The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
• The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

I was also challenged by a article from the great C.S. Lewis called The Weight of Glory. It can be found online here. The following excerpt from this article regarding desire captured my attention:

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

A practical way of beginning to connect discipline and desire is to set some spiritual goals, and then apply spiritual disciplines to achieve those goals. Here’s a simple, one-page goal sheet to help you do just that: Spiritual Discipline Goal Sheet.

May you know God’s favor as you seek to grow your faith and joy in Christ by engaging in these disciplines!