Spiritual Disciplines 101
By Nate Corley
What comes to mind when you hear the word “discipline?” Punishment, maybe? An angry teacher holding a detention slip? Boot camp? Yeah, me too. What you probably don’t think of (but should) is the word “disciple.” Spiritual disciple-ins are, simply put, practices that help us follow Jesus faithfully. They’re “habits of grace,” in the words of David Mathis: things we do on a regular basis because we want to know God better and enjoy his grace more deeply.
Before we get into the specifics of what spiritual disciplines are, a few cautions about what they’re NOT.
Spiritual disciplines are not magic. They’re not going to infuse you with special demon-fighting powers or make it so you hover over the pavement like a Jedi as you glide into church for Impact on Tuesday nights. Rather, they are personal practices (habits!) that can help you know God better and grow into maturity day by day, year by year.
Spiritual disciplines are not a way to earn “brownie points.” They don’t make God to love you more, or give you leverage if you’re asking God to give you stuff. In contrast to the way many non-Christian religious systems view spiritual practices, they don’t help you control God at all. Instead, they’re practices that help you recognize how much control GOD is in control over everything (including you) and submit to his good will in all things.
Spiritual disciplines don’t make you better than other people. This is a major caution Jesus gives when it comes to spiritual disciplines: don’t think your hardcore diligence in these things elevates you over others (Matt. 6:5-6; Luke 18:9-14). If you find yourself looking down on others cause they don’t pray the way you do or fast or whatever…you’re doing it wrong.
Spiritual disciplines are not the measuring stick of spiritual growth. I want to emphasize this one here because it’s a trap many good-hearted Christians step into. We start out reading the Bible regularly or spending time in prayer because we want to grow in our relationship with God…but then next thing you know, we start using these habits to EVALUATE our relationship with God. Meaning, if we’re being disciplined with our Bible reading and prayer, we feel really good about how we’re doing as a Christian. If we’re slacking off in these things (or other disciplines), we feel really BAD about how we’re doing as a Christian. So we end up on this weird sort of spiritual seesaw depending on how disciplined we are over the course of any given week. UP…and down….up again…and down again….that’s not what the disciplines are for.
So what ARE Spiritual Disciplines?
Spiritual disciplines are relational. We must never forget this fundamental fact: the Christian life is about knowing God through Jesus, glorifying God through Jesus, and enjoying God forever through Jesus….and spiritual disciplines can help us grow in this relational reality right now. Some of the “cardinal disciplines” illustrate this well. What is prayer except talking to God? What is Bible reading, meditation, or memorization except HEARING from God? What is solitude except setting aside time to spend with God? Etc. These are all, fundamentally, relational practices. A good analogy is the date night I spend with my wife once per week. Yeah, it takes some effort to do this (making a plan, coordinating babysitting, setting the time aside, etc.), but guess what? It doesn’t FEEL like work because the goal is relational. And the more I spend time enjoying my wife, the more I enjoy spending time with my wife. You follow? Same for the spiritual disciplines.
Spiritual disciplines are built on grace. The reason we can do any of the spiritual disciplines is because there is a God in heaven who loves us, rescues us, and wants us to know Him intimately through Jesus. Do you really how crazy cool that is?? We can’t forget this in the “duty” of doing disciplines like prayer or Bible reading: how extraordinary is it that God wants us to talk to Him? And actually listens? Or that He cares enough to give us His word, in scripture? Again, like the date night analogy: it should blow me away that my wonderful wife still wants to spend time with me after all these years (especially if you saw the car I was driving her around in for our dates in college…yikes). If I’m seeing my date nights with Shawna as anything less than a precious expression of her kindness to me, I’m missing something critically important. Disciplines only are possible because God is good and gracious and kind. Disciplines are a gift.
The expression of spiritual disciplines are a matter of freedom. Full confession (and please don’t show this to Alexa): I don’t use a “read the Bible in a year” plan. I’m not against them. In fact, I commend all you Impact students who are ripping through the 9-month reading plan with the rest of the group. But personally, for right now, I’m enjoying a slower pace through scripture, with more time to savor and meditate. Is one approach better than the other? Maybe. But the Bible doesn’t tell us which. I think it’s very significant that the Bible doesn’t give us a set number of times to pray every day (like we see in other religious systems), or prescribed fasts, or a rigid formula for how to worship. The way of Christ is a way of freedom. Will you journal your prayers instead of speaking them aloud? Will you take a short “prayer walk” right after getting home from school every day? Will you quote a prayer from the Psalms every night before you go to bed? Will you pray with other people before every meal? Guess what – these are ALL good options. And part of the fun of the disciplines is exploring new ways to engage in different spiritual habits that, over time, can develop into lifelong patterns.
What does this look like specifically, in practice? Well, I’ll leave that to the other contributors in this series. But let me add a final word, in the form of parable from Jesus in Luke 6:47-49:
“Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Spiritual disciplines can help us build on Jesus – and then watch as Jesus builds our lives into something unshakeably beautiful. What a gift - What a Savior!
REFLECTION
What comes to mind when you think about Spiritual Disciplines? Is this phrase that you’re familiar with? Do you have any experience with spiritual disciplines?
Read James 1:22-25 and James 2:14-17
How do these passages connect to the practice of spiritual disciplines?
In the coming weeks and months we are going to break down various spiritual disciplines in depth. As we prepare to study together, take some time to invite God into the process. Pray that he would open your heart to see what areas you need to grow in. Pray that he would convict you of sin and that he would prepare you to walk in humility and wisdom.