Thoughts on the Spiritual Disciplines

The practice of the spiritual disciplines:

1. Requires a balanced approach.

What do you think of when you hear the phrase spiritual disciplines? I would guess that most of us would think of things that we do alone to grow in our walk with Jesus, like reading and studying the Bible, praying, fasting, and silence and solitude. Those are all great practices to do on your own. But it’s just as important to practice those spiritual disciplines in community, along with other disciplines like worshiping together, giving generously, serving, and witnessing. Life transformation happens best in community.

The practice of spiritual disciplines:

2. Takes into account my personality.

How many of you are introverts like I am? We need copious amounts of time alone, don’t we? We need time and space to think, process with God, listen, pray, and read the Bible slowly. But as introverted as I am, do I still need community? Yes! That’s why I lead a d-group. That’s why I attend a d-group. That’s why I have a few close friendships. I need community.

Now, how many of you are extroverts? Do you still need silence and solitude? Sure you do! But you need way more time in community. You need to go out and share a meal, maybe not once a week, but four times a week. Again, we need a balanced approach that takes into account who we are. We need to find freedom in who God made us to be.

The practice of spiritual disciplines:

3. Takes into account my season of life.

We talked a little bit about this last week. If you’re in college, that’s a season of life. If you have kids, that’s a season of life. If you’re an empty nester, that’s a season of life. If you’re at the height of your career, that’s a season of life. If you’re retired, that’s a season of life. So, we’ve got to know where we are in our season of life and adjust accordingly to the practices of spiritual discipline.

We talked about the stage of discipleship last week as well. We need to know where we are in our walk with Jesus. Are we in the beginning stages of being with Jesus? Are we starting to become like Jesus? Or are we starting to do what Jesus did? There are seasons of discipleship to Jesus as well.

The practice of spiritual disciplines…

4. Isn’t afraid to do the hard work.

The disciplines that are the most difficult for us to do are most likely the ones we need to practice the most. All we have to do is follow the pain. Those of you who exercise, work out, or lift weights, you know what I mean. If there’s an area you find very difficult and painful, then that’s an area you’ve got to work on. We might try out a spiritual discipline and find that it’s way too difficult. It could mean that it’s not a great fit for our personality or season of life right now. But it’s more likely to mean that it’s a growth area for us right now.

So, let me give you an example of what I mean by talking about Sabbath. Sabbath is stopping, resting, and worshiping God. It’s a tough discipline in our hyperconnected, over-busy culture. We might try it for a week or two. But it won’t take very long for us to discover that it’s not easy. It’s really difficult. It takes a while to figure it out. Now, it could mean that Sabbath isn’t right for us right now. But it’s more likely to mean that we’re just addicted to the drugs of accomplishment and accumulation. Our phones have become appendages, and we don’t know how to just be and not do all the time. Sabbath takes a while to figure out because our minds are all over the place, and we’re restless. So, Sabbath could be an area of growth in our discipleship to Jesus.

How do we do anything we need to grow in? Well, we start out really small. We don’t go to the gym and start bench pressing 500 pounds. We start with what we’re comfortable with and increase the weight as we get stronger. The same is true with the spiritual disciplines. We’re not gonna sit down and read through the Bible in one day. But we might spend five or 10 minutes each day reading the Bible. Pretty soon, we’re reading every day. And eventually, we’ll read through the entire Bible.

The practice of spiritual disciplines:

5. Takes into account the need for repetition.

There’s no spiritual formation without repetition. The thing about the disciplines is that in the moment, it doesn’t feel like they’re that impactful. But over time, they have a cumulative effect. They do change us, but it takes a while.

The best analogy I can think of is the movie The Karate Kid. In the movie, Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel karate in what seems to be unconventional ways. One of the ways is having Daniel wax his car. But it’s not the way you would typically wax a car. With his right hand, he applies the wax; with his left hand, he wipes off the wax. “Wax on; wax off.” And every day, Mr. Miyagi has Daniel out there completing all these chores around the house. He’s waxing cars, painting fences, and hammering nails. “Wax on; wax off.” “Up, down.” But in Daniel’s mind, he’s not learning karate. He’s just doing chores the old man can’t do himself. Daniel’s getting frustrated, and he’s ready to quit. But before Daniel walks away for good, Mr. Miyagi demonstrates to Daniel that what he had been doing the whole time was learning several karate moves, which inspires Daniel to continue with his training, even if it means waxing cars day after day.

When it comes to the spiritual disciplines, it might feel like we’re waxing Mr. Miyagi’s car day after day. We might even get bitter about it because it’s not fun, and we don’t like it. Some of us might even be inclined to give up and walk away altogether. But what we’re doing is becoming master apprentices of Jesus. We might not notice it because real transformation is slow and incremental. But one day, we’ll wake up and realize, “Whoa! I’m not the same person I was a year ago!” And other people will recognize it, too.

That’s discipleship to Jesus. It doesn’t happen in a matter of days or weeks. It happens over a lifetime of discipleship to Jesus. And that’s so difficult in our quick-fix, instant-gratification, text-message culture. We want it right now. But discipleship is a long, slow journey to transformation.