Investing Into Your Heavenly Account 4

<p>&nbsp;Thursday 21st January 2021&nbsp;</p> <p><br></p> <p>A lovely Thursday to you in the name of Jesus.</p> <p><br></p> <p>We are still talking about “Investing in Your Heavenly Account.”&nbsp;</p> <p><br></p> <p>It's important we know that if there's no investment, there can be no return, but when we know that there are returns on every investment in our heavenly account, then we are encouraged to do the same.</p> <p><br></p> <p>We've been talking about the lesson learnt from Richard Foster's book: Celebration of Discipline and the three categories of discipline - inward discipline, outward discipline and corporate discipline.&nbsp;</p> <p><br></p> <p>Today, we'll be looking at the Inward Discipline, the things that we practice that makes our life better, that help us examine ourselves, that gives us a better sense of awareness and helps us develop ourselves.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Now there are four major practices under the Inward Discipline.</p> <p><br></p> <p>First one is Meditation.&nbsp;</p> <p>What do we mean by meditation? Meditation is just to think about, talk about or mutter about the Word of God and the ways of God so deeply that we receive instruction and direction so we can follow them. That's simply what meditation is all about.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Second is prayer and this is simply talking to God, conversing with God, expressing your mind to God. It's good we do that talking and speaking out. Yes, some people talk about silent prayers in our hearts yes, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask of or think but it is good we learn the practice of speaking out audibly to God.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The third one is Fasting.&nbsp;</p> <p>What do we mean by fasting? Fasting simply means abstinence from certain things, food and other pleasure so we can give our attention to God, to listen to Him, to get His directions and bring our flesh and our body under control.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The last one is Studying. By this we mean learning from books, from the Bible, learning from peo