Formation: Looking for God
During doctoral study I took a class where we studied faith formation. I learned about a man named James Fowler and his stages of faith. In attacking the questions of faith, Fowler shares all the ways that faith grows and forms in us.
We established in the previous post that a natural season should not limit our seeking God. Nick Baines describes how seeking God introduces us to ourselves. We, in search of Him, must confront how we see, hear, and think. That’s powerful! We begin with one aim — namely, to find God in our situation and thus find an answer — and the process transforms our external goal into an internal treasure chest. Holy Spirit reveals our ways and shows us what works and what is problematic.
Advent offers us not only the opportunity to learn about Old Testament prophets and what bugged them but also to examine ourselves and what shapes our seeing and listening and thinking.
nick baines, author of freedom is coming: from advent to epiphany with the prophet isaiah
What if we read the Bible and think of the characters as actual people? Nick Baines, in his Advent devotional based on passages from the Book of Isaiah, brings us into pace with the Scripture. We get a chance to see the prophet as a person and the exiles as people. Baines brings us face to face with the humanity and mindset of exiled people, and how they had to see, hear, and think, to consider the good news of a Messiah and Savior being born.
That is just one example. Today, we have many ways that we see things, listen to information, and think about the application of each. Many go on living as if they are right and their perception is flawless; it takes grand errors and catastrophes for them to pivot and consider a new way. We do not have to be that way. We can choose to grow in faith through self-assessment. We can choose to seek God and when we are exposed, not retreat. We can decide right now to let a living faith be formed in us unto right seeing, listening, and thinking. I hope we will try. If others have done it for centuries, then we can do it.
Dr. Shaunta Scroggins is the founder of The Bereans’ Commentary.
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