The Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual habits or disciplines have shaped Christ's followers for centuries.  I believe today we need to rediscover those tools for spiritual growth.  There is no list of spiritual disciplines in the Bible, but the scripture is full of examples of people practicing spiritual habits, such as prayer, scripture study, fasting, and solitude.  To find a systematic description of disciplines, one can look at Christian writers through history.

Richard Foster gives a description of disciplines in The Celebration of Discipline, and in The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard  explains what disciplines are, and how they are helpful in the life of a Christ follower.  He says that disciplines are activities we engage in with our physical bodies which help us deepen our relationship with God.  These activities do not earn us points with God, but they help us develop our spiritual muscles and help us become ready to receive God's blessings.

Consider these analogies:

• You put a plant near the window so that it gets more sunlight.  The place on the window sill is important only because it puts the plant in the sun.  The sunlight makes the difference, not the particular location.  Similarly, solitude, as a spiritual practice, has value because it puts us in the place where God can speak to us.  Isolation has limited value by itself; but being able to hear God speak is essential for the Christian life.
• Basketball players run wind-sprints as they train.  No one ever won a game by sprinting alone, but the practice of plyometrics develops speed and endurance; with speed and endurance, players have better ability to rebound, shoot and defend.  In the spiritual realm, scripture memory can help us stand firm when tempted, letting us live in the Spirit's power, not our own weakness.  Scripture memory doesn't guarantee victory over temptation, but it provides us a solid spiritual foundation on which we can live victoriously.

I found it difficult to teach on the spiritual disciplines, because most biblical teaching on disciplines is indirect. But I do want my teaching to be rooted in scripture.  So as I teach at Crossroads about spiritual habits or disciplines, I refer to the Great Commandment of Jesus, Mark 12:29-30 (NIV) "The most important [commandment]," Jesus answered, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"

I now base my teaching on spiritual habits upon Jesus' instruction about heart, soul, mind and strength.  After studying other writers' lists of spiritual disciplines, I have grouped the disciplines as follows:

Heart  (Will)

Personal Emotional Development

The habit of Worship

Sacrifice, Celebration

The habit of Fellowship

Submission, Confession

The habit of Stewardship

Frugality, Tithing

Mind 

Personal Intellectual Development

The habit of the Study of God’s Word

Memory, Reading, Study

The habit of the Study God’s World

Current events, Literature, Art, philosophy, Science, Industry

The habit of Entertainment

Strength (Body)

Personal Physical Development

The habit of Sabbath

The habit of Service 

Evangelism, Secrecy

The habit of Health

Chastity, No addictions, Exercise, Diet

Soul

Personal Spiritual Development

The habit of Prayer

Silence, Fasting

The habit of Solitude

The habit of Blessing

In future posts, I want to dig into this spiritual habit I call "entertainment."  Stay tuned...

Leaning into Lent

The season of preparation for Easter begins this week with Ash Wednesday on March 5.  I don't always dive into Lent, but I see the importance of spiritual disciplines more clearly now than ever.  This is a good occasion to open myself up to all that God wants to show me, about himself and about myself.  I'm praying for God to show me how to celebrate.  What will I give up for Lent?

Traditionally, Christians have celebrated 40 days prior to Easter in a season known as Lent.  The term "lent" comes from the German word for "long," as the days become longer in the spring.  The 40-day period does not include Sundays, so the Lenten season is actually 46 days long, including Easter Sunday.

At Ash Wednesday services, some believers have ashes smeared onto their foreheads in the shape of a cross.  The ashes represent repentance, harkening back to biblical repentance "in sackcloth and ashes." 

There were intervals of fasting in the early Lenten practices.  Today as part of the Lenten season, believers will often choose to sacrifice something, whether it is food or something else.  The sacrifice reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins, and our surrender to him opens us to the work of God in our lives.

Some may choose to forgo eating on every Friday (or other day) during Lent. 

Here are a few other suggestions of things you may consider giving up for lent:

• Social media
• Dessert
• Television
• Chocolate
• Soda
• Alcohol
• Fast food
• Shopping
• Snack foods
• Coffee
• Bread
• Texting
• Movies

The point is to do something with your body that draws you closer to Jesus.  You may start a habit you keep forever!

Tools for Developing Discipleship

What is a spiritual discipline?  There is no list of the disciplines in the Bible.  But tradition is rich with spiritual practices that help us develop as disciples.

Spiritual disciplines are habits or practices that allow us to dive deeper into our relationship with Jesus.  They provide a context for our lives in which we can hear God speak and see his hand at work.  They help us get ready to obey.  They help us know him personally and intimately.

Adam and Eve spoke directly with God, beginning the practice of prayer.  Their children Cain and Able may have begun the practice of giving to God through sacrifice.  Abraham continues the tradition of giving to God as he offers a tenth (tithe) of his spoils of war to Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of the Most High God.   

Later we find followers of God fasting, worshipping, meditating, fellowshipping, remembering, confessing, resting, reflecting, serving, studying.  Today we have the Old and New Testaments, a rich collection of documents about God’s interaction with man.

In Acts 2 we find the early church beginning a new kind of community.  They devoted themselves to:

• The apostles’ teaching
• The fellowship
• The breaking of the bread
• Prayer

In these four elements, we find the foundation for Christian spiritual disciplines.  The apostles’ teaching is captured in the New Testament, with the Old Testament as its foundation.  So many spiritual disciplines are founded on the scriptures including reading, memorizing, and meditating.

The fellowship is the collection of believers, the church.  Disciplines with the fellowship include service, giving and evangelism.

The breaking of the bread is a reference to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  By extension, then, we find the spiritual discipline of corporate worship, including celebration, confession, baptism, and remembering.

Prayer is the oldest spiritual discipline, and the early Christians were devoted to it.  Their prayer included fasting, confession, simplicity and solitude.

These habits are a means for us to know God and love God.  Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God.  Paul said that compared to knowing God, everything else is just garbage.

Why Bother?

A caveman in an old “B.C.” comic strip was explaining the game of golf to a cavewoman. “The fewer times you hit the ball, the better,” he said. She left him speechless with her next question: “Why hit the ball at all?”

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In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster suggests 12 disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. We know that God wants us to do these things, because the Bible tells us so. But, besides obedience, why engage in spiritual disciplines at all?

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Last week a friend shared an insight from the Christian writer Dallas Willard about the value of the disciplines. As most believers have learned, we grow the most through our difficult experiences. Through our suffering we grow more spiritually than through any other experiences. In our difficulties, we do what we have to. We face the pain. We learn to trust. We learn that God really loves us. We stop relying on ourselves. We get our priorities in order.

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In many ways, engaging in spiritual disciplines helps us simulate the experience of suffering, says Willard. With the disciplines, we interrupt our selfish schedules to do something that will allow us to grow closer to Jesus. In a way, we produce our own suffering, because we believe that knowing Jesus is worth it.

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I’m finally making sense of this. When I interviewed Charlie Engle, after he ran across the Sahara Desert, he also spoke of the growth that any person gains through suffering. As he tackles seemingly impossible feats, he pushes himself beyond reasonable limits. He said that we all will suffer, and we all can grow through that suffering. He wants to grow, he said, but he wants to choose the suffering intentionally.

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I thought there had to be some way to apply that thinking to the spiritual life. We can choose to “suffer” by engaging in spiritual disciplines. We push ourselves to read the whole Bible in a year, to fast for a day or two, to memorize a chapter of scripture, to pray for a half hour, to spend a day alone with God. Through it all, we get to know him and love him more.

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We can also push ourselves to “suffer” by stepping out boldly in faith – changing careers, adopting a child, giving sacrificially, volunteering in the community, running for office, going back to school, selling an extra car, becoming a missionary.

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A life without difficulties would make us dull and spiritually weak. I’m not asking for trouble, but I do want to grow spiritually. Choosing to engage in the spiritual disciplines seems like a great way to embrace a life of love with Jesus.