Spiritual Formation
2024-2025 Spiritual Theme
By Joshua Stines, Director of Spiritual Formation
Be Still
Do you ever experience moments that leave you feeling chaotic inside?
It could happen because of a conversation with someone, an email or a text you’ve just received, disheartening news someone just shared with you, a change of plans, an unexpected problem that just occurred ... Whatever it is, your mind begins to race, a wave of emotions floods your system, and eventually you find yourself asking questions like, What should I do? How should I respond? Where should I go?
It is in these kinds of moments that our God steps in and calls us to put our trust in Him. His words form next year’s spiritual theme:
“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’ ” —Psalm 46:10, NIV
Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, we will be studying the entirety of Psalm 46 as we explore what it has to say about how to trust God through our minds, our hearts, and our actions. Sometimes that means meditating on who God is and how He has been faithful to us. In some situations, it means being patient as we seek God in prayer, awaiting with anticipation the answer He will give us. Other times it means responding in mercy to those who do us harm.
No matter the situation, Psalm 46 teaches us how we can be still in all of who we are by putting our trust in Jesus, submitting to His Lordship and His reign in our lives, and being obedient by doing what He has commanded us to do.
I look forward to making this journey with you!
What Is Spiritual Formation?
Paul writes to the Galatians, “My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19 NRSV, emphasis added). Spiritual formation is the process by which we partner with God’s grace to bring about Christlike virtue and character within us. It is simply Christ being formed in you and me. This process doesn’t just happen in one aspect of who we are. Christlike transformation happens in our heads, our hearts, and our hands—lived out in our actions.