What are Spiritual Disciplines? They are the basic practices that Christians have used since Jesus’ day. They are things like prayer, worship, scripture reading, silence, fasting and others. They have had a bit of a bad rap, especially in the Protestant Church, for some time. This is largely due to the extremes to which they were taken in the early Middle Ages. Many have come to associate the disciplines with hermits living in caves or monks in monasteries taking 20 year vows of silence. Many Christians tend to think of them as things that only extremely spiritual people can do. But most of us have lives, -work, family, etc.
The truth is spiritual disciplines were always intended for normal people leading busy lives. They are in fact the practices that make the Christian life workable. If you have been a Christian for a while and always wondered if there isn’t more, the disciplines are definitely for you.
The disciplines are not merit badges. They don’t indicate our spirituality. They don’t earn us points with God. He is not impressed with our reading the Bible from start to finish or with how long we can fast. They are not the goal of Christian life. They are rather a means to an end. The goal is a closer relationship with God and growing to be more and more like His son Jesus.
Think of it like a farmer planting a seed. He cannot make the seed grow. But he can cultivate the right conditions to make growth more likely. He can water, weed and fertilize. And then the rest is up to God. So it is with God. Real change from the inside out is something we are not capable of on our own. Just look at the growing number of self help books in your local bookstore. If they really helped we should all be perfect by now. Only God can make really permanent changes deep inside of us. But we can cultivate the atmosphere that makes growth more likely, through prayer, fasting, worship etc. Then it’s up to the Holy Spirit to grow his fruit (love, peace, joy, etc.) in us.
Over the next few weeks I will be looking at some of these disciplines in more detail. The good news is that they don’t require any great theological knowledge to practice them. The only real requirement is a heart to seek after God.