Early in my faith journey, I (Erin) was reading the Psalms and came across this verse: “As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” (Psalm 42:1) What stood out that day wasn’t that I had heard this in hymns before (I had). Nor was it that it described my heart for God (It didn’t).

What stood out to me that day was that I realized I had no clue what the writer of this psalm was talking about.

What would it actually feel like to desire God so strongly that it was like panting for water? How could I make myself be like this?

I didn’t know then that you cannot manufacture this love and devotion for God. I didn’t realize then that a longing for God is something we happen upon and nurture as we live our lives intentionally. Instead, I set out to make myself change. I’d read the Bible, do Bible studies, and get myself sorted out to be the person I thought I needed to be.

The problem was, and is, that you cannot manufacture change in your life by setting your mind to it. We are often taught that if we think and believe the right things, our lives are then aligned with Christ. But the problem is, this line of thinking often falls short and leaves our faith feeling dry and irrelevant.

You see, God created us to be shaped by what we do and practice day in and day out. This is why the Bible is full of commands and teachings about how to live our lives. Take the Ten Commandments, for example. They are a list of ten ways that we should live our lives. These aren’t ways to think about living. God doesn’t tell us to not thinkabout stealing. God commands us to not steal. 

Or consider the book Leviticus. If you read it, you can quickly see how God is teaching the Israelites how to live their lives. God doesn’t tell them how to think properly. God gives them a lo-o-o-ong list of practices to do in their everyday lives, ranging from what food to eat to how to celebrate different days and festivals. These actual practices are the way to living life to the fullest.

When Jesus entered the scene in the New Testament, He spent much of His ministry showing people how to live their lives. He clarifies for us that faith isn’t just about following a list of laws that will make us righteous. Faith also has a heart component. God cares about justice, so when someone wrongs you, turn the other cheek but don’t retaliate. God cares about your heart posture, so when you fast, do it in a way that grows your soul but doesn’t show off to the world how pious you are. God cares about serving others, healing the sick, and practicing habits that can grow our hearts and souls closer to Him.

The good news is that these habits and practices that can draw us closer to God have been passed down in the history of God’s people through what are known as spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are practices we can engage in to draw us closer to God. You will find them referred to throughout Scripture. And while Scripture doesn’t give many how-tos, there are records from the faith community throughout history that give us insight into what practicing them looks like.

Not that practicing spiritual disciplines earns us something. They don’t make us more Christian than others, but they do create the conditions for a deeper relationship with God and help shape us at the level of our heart and our deepest desires. By practicing the spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, fasting, silence, solitude, celebration, lamenting, and others, we train our hearts and minds to draw close to God and learn how to yearn after him.

So brothers and sisters, may you create intentional space and practices to discover the yearning God placed in you for God and may you experience the joy and satisfaction that only an intimate relationship with God can provide.