Spiritual Formation Essay-BP[3]
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Southwest Baptist University *
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Dec 6, 2023
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Pierce 1
Bailey Pierce
Intro to Spiritual Formation SPF-2021-1
Dr. Lyngdoh
11/7/2021
Spiritual Reading Reflection
I have gotten the opportunity to grow up having a relationship with God. All my life I’ve
gone to church with my mom almost every Sunday I can remember. I was blessed to have the
childlike faith the Bible calls each and every believer to have. At the age of eight, I asked the
Holy Spirit into my heart. Even though I was so young, I still remember the day I was baptized
so vividly. I finally had the chance to tell the world I was a child of God! Once I got to high
school, I still had a strong belief in God, but growth in my relationship with Him hadn’t
expanded in months. I read my Bible every once in a while. I prayed pretty often. But I had lost
the fire to really pursue God that I had when I was younger. I started going to church camp over
the summers with my youth group, and there, I finally started to find the motivation to draw
closer to God. Everyone there shared their testimonies of how they went through life’s toughest
struggles, and my story felt invalid. I had never gone through really anything terribly hard at that
point in my life. I was blessed from the beginning, and that never really stopped. As I began
drawing closer in my walk with Christ, I struggled with my testimony for a long, long time. I felt
that it wasn’t strong enough, or powerful enough to be shared. Over time, I continued to pursue
God, and my relationship with Him felt so strong. Then, October of my junior year in high
school, one of my closest friends lost his life to suicide. This was the first, and only time I’ve
ever really had an experience with death, but it knocked me down hard. I wouldn’t say I went
into a state of depression from this, but I felt numb of anything for many months following that.
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Throughout this time, mentors from my church continued to pray over me as I walked through
this valley. Although I felt nothing for most of the time, staying in the Word was the only thing
that uplifted my spirit. Even after two years now, there are still some days that it hurts, but I’ve
learned to trust God with what happened and I know it wasn’t my fault. I now know that God is
going to use this experience to help me spread His good word. Even though this experience
didn’t validate my testimony, I know that it still has power and that God uses every single one of
us to further His Kingdom. I’m not saying I now have it all figured out though. There are days
that I can’t find the motivation to read my Bible, where I forget to pray when I start worrying, or
when my tongue gets the best of me. I’m still growing in my relationship with God, and I try my
best every day to live a life just like Jesus’s. As I’ve gone through the journey of reading
Christian Spiritual Formation
by Diane J. Chandler, I’ve learned that I need to keep Christ at the
center of every single thing in my life. In this reflection, I will give a summary of the book, I will
talk about what insights I gained, and then explain how I apply these lessons in my own walk
with Christ.
Each and every one of us is made in the
imago Dei
(image of God). When Eve sinned in
the garden, humankind was separated from Christ. Romans 3:23 reflects this as it says, “For all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” However, through the provision of God’s
beloved son, Jesus Christ, He has redeemed us. Because of this we have a restored relationship
with God. The book breaks it down into the seven Christian spiritual formation dimensions.
These dimensions include formation of the Spirit, emotional formation, relational formation,
intellectual formation, vocational formation, physical health and wellness, and resource
stewardship. Following these seven dimensions in our life shows our honor and praise to God for
all He has done for us.
Pierce 3
The book dives into the four primary lenses that are used as an integrated approach to
better understand the
imago Dei
. The four primary lenses include the human capacity to think
and reason, interpersonal relationships, dominion over the earth, and a divine goal and destiny.
Each of these four lenses helps believers to be transformed into the
imago Dei
as we use the life
we were given to bring more people to Christ. This directly ties into spiritual formation as we
prepare to live our eternal life.
Focusing primarily on God’s love, I want to speak on the importance of how He made
humankind in the
imago Dei
out of His love. Everything He’s done for us, from creation to the
cross, was out of love. To show our gratitude toward God, we must accept His love, and then
love God and others. God as the Trinity is a perfect example of His love for us. He sent His son,
Jesus, to pay the debt for our sins, and then He sent us the Holy Spirit to live within us and guide
us. Moving on, the book also helps us realize that our relationship with Christ began at salvation.
Our relationship then continues through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us as it begins to
transform us into the
imago Christi
(image of Christ). The formation of the spirit gives purpose
to all the other dimensions.
Identifying our emotional bonds and talking about how God helps develop our emotions
is a major topic in the book. The relationships in our life directly reflect our emotional growth
and development. It goes on to talk about how to find freedom from emotional bondage by
forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key component to emotional formation, and also ties into the
fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit should also be noticeable in our relationships. The
importance of relationships in our walk with Christ and how they conform you into the
imago
Christi
should be a priority in a believer’s life. This transformation is mainly noticeable through
conflict and conflict resolution. Friendships also help us grow in trust, vulnerability, sharing, and
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Pierce 4
security. The church should also reflect the Trinity, in relation to community. Although we as the
church, are imperfect people, we were called to nurture and provide safety and encouragement
through our relationships.
Reflecting God’s own nature, the book explains how God has given humankind the
ability to think, reason, and understand. Faith and reason do not refute each other, rather they
amplify the wonderful works of God. We are called by God to renew our minds so that we are
not conformed to the patterns of this world, (Romans 12:2). Renewing our minds is an act of
praise to God so that we can use our minds in worship, faith, holiness, guidance, daily living, and
Christian ministry. As children of God, we are called to seek out the truth, with the Holy Spirit’s
guidance and through scripture. The book also talks about how various worldviews will compete
for our minds. We must stay firm in the Word so that we can shine like stars into this world.
The importance of vocational formation is tremendous because it relates specifically to
our life purpose and calling. Each and every one of us were given a unique calling specifically
for us. The book goes on to explain eight different ways this calling can be discerned. These
being obediently living according to God’s guidance, a sense of burden, passion, compassion, or
holy desire, revelation brought to us through Scripture, looking at our past to see how God has
transformed us, trial-and-error learning, faithful service, prayer and worship, and input from
those around us that we trust. Using Jesus as an example, it is vital that we obey God in response
to our calling. Our God-given gifts are also called into the picture when discussing our calling.
Using these gifts to love God and His people is the main focus of vocational formation.
Moving on to the importance of physical health formation. The book explains that this
dimension cannot be neglected or the other dimensions will be compromised as well. We must
honor our bodies and take care of them. It also warns us not to idolize or worship our body, but
Pierce 5
that we must find the balance to take good care of it. Not only do we need to care for our bodies,
but the book goes on to express that we also must care for God’s creation. We should be
responsible stewards of the things God has given to us for the
gloria Dei
, (the glory of God). We
must also learn how to manage our material possessions. “How we use our money, possessions
and time for God’s glory reveals the quality of our spiritual lives” (Chandler, page 272). It
continues on talking about how vital it is that we make time for God in our every day lives. He
should be our number one priority.
The importance of ethical living is demonstrated in all seven Christian spiritual formation
dimensions through obedience, holiness, and principled real-life application. To glorify God, we
must become more like Christ in our behavior. We should embody love, just as Christ was an
example of this. We must imitate Christ in order for His character to be reflected onto the world.
The book also briefly discusses the topic of balance in one’s life. It explains the importance of
not focusing on one dimension more than any of the others, and it also talks about how we don’t
have to be perfect. Putting too much focus on everything we do to do be perfect can strip the joy
out of living. We must embrace the Holy Spirit’s guidance instead of being so caught up with
achieving certain goals. Life’s main purpose is to become more Christlike every day.
Through the journey of reading this book, my eyes have been opened to many new
lessons. When it comes to the seven dimensions, I believe I struggle the most with emotional
formation, relational formation, and physical health and wellness. As I’ve grown up, the self-
image I have of myself has not been a very confident one. I’ve never been one to boast or be
outgoing about myself. The enemy feeds me lies all the time about myself, and sometimes I
really believe they’re true. But through the book, I’ve learned that emotional formation is about
Pierce 6
aligning our self-image to Biblical truth. I’ve also had to learn how to forgive others, just as
Christ has done for me.
In the relational formation dimension, I’ve found that I struggle keeping God at the center
of the relationships in my life. Whether it’s with my boyfriend, my best friend, or my family,
sometimes I forget that our relationship needs to be built on the foundation of the Lord. This
book has taught me that my community should lift me up, speak life into me, and point me in the
direction of God. I should also do the same for them. In my relationships I should reflect the
Trinity- love and unity.
Physical health and wellness formation has been my major struggle. The book has taught
me that in order to honor God, I must honor my body. Taking time to rest, exercise, eat right, and
get enough sleep are just a couple of ways the book gives to honor our bodies, and by doing this
we can serve others. But by honoring our bodies we cannot idolize them. I feel like I continually
push myself to the limit, and I never have time to relax. I feel like I always need to be doing
something or I’m being unproductive, but in reality, my body needs leisure time. Even Jesus took
the time He needed to rest.
After reading the book and listening to the insights it has given me, I have had to think of
ways to apply these lessons to my life. Out of every single dimension listed in the book, the
number one application would be for me to pray more frequently. Not only when life is bad and I
need something, but also when life is going great. This will help me build a stronger relationship
with God and grow closer to Him. Also, learning to be still to give God the time to speak to me.
Before anything else, I feel like this is the primary application that needs to be added to my life.
Emotionally, I need to take the negative thoughts I have about myself captive to obey who Christ
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Pierce 7
says I am, [2 Corinthians 10:5]. Doing this will help me feel more comfortable to fall back into
the identity that God has given to me. This ties back into allowing God to speak into my life.
To grow in relational formation, I need to learn to practice forgiveness. Too often I find
myself holding on to things that happened so long ago, but those people never apologized to me
or even felt sorry at all. But just as Jesus hung from the cross and said, “Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing” [Luke 23:34], I too should forgive those people. I wrote a
letter about it, forgiving the people for what they did to me and how they made me feel. I’m
going to hold onto it until Thanksgiving break, praying over it, and then I will throw it away and
let it go. Another application to remind myself that God should be at the center of my
relationships is praying for each person that this includes. This will help me remember that God
is working in my life and in their life, and that we are having fellowship together to push each
other closer to Christ.
The last formation dimension that I am striving to grow in is physical health and
wellness. Like I said before, I struggle with letting myself have time to rest. I go and go all the
time, and forget to slow down to recharge. This makes me so drained that I have nothing left in
my cup to pour out into others, which is the opposite of what God has called me to do. To apply
the insights of the book to my life I am going to schedule a time every day, and write it down in
my planner, to be still and spend time with God, and to rest. It will definitely be a learning
process, but it has to start somewhere.
This book has opened my eyes to the areas of my life that needed attention. This class has
even helped me learn how to take these insights I’ve learned, and apply them to my everyday
life. I never would have realized these areas of my life that I struggle with if the book didn’t put
so much emphasis on, and detail into every single life dimension. I strive to be transformed into
Pierce 8
the likeness of Christ, and I cannot wait to implement these applications into my life. Focusing
on taking my thoughts captive, reminding myself to keep my relationships centered around
Christ, and taking care of my body so that I can use it to serve others. I am excited to see
transformation and growth in all areas of my life from this book.