Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

“Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” is a book that we are reading here. It is by Donald S. Whitney published by Navpress, a ministry of the Navigators. ISBN 0-913367-13-3

“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” 1 Timothy 4:7, NASB

Chapter One: The Spiritual Disciplines For the Purpose of Godliness
Chapter Two: Bible Intake (Part 1)
Chapter 3: Bible Intake (Part 2)
Chapter 4: Prayer
Chapter 5: Worship
Chapter 6: Evangelism
Chapter 7: Serving
Chapter 8: Stewardship
Chapter 9: Fasting
Chapter 10: Silence and Soliture
Chapter 11: Journaling
Chapter 12: Learning
Chapter 13: Perseverance in the Disciplines

The first chapter gets you excited about this subject and sets forth the premise and purpose of the book. It lists other disciplines such as confession, affirmation, sacrifice, and “watching”. It gives an example of someone who is inspired by a great guitar player and wants to become like him. His guitar lessons and practice no longer become drudgery because the student has direction, clarity, a target. “Discipline with direction is drudgery.”

I liked chapter 8 on stewardship. I thought it was going to talk about money but it instead talked about time. I was quite convicted about how I use (or rather misuse) my time. I’m still working through this.

You can get this book directly for about $11 plus shipping. It retails for $14.

From Navpress click here.
From Christian Book Distributors click here.
From Amazon click here.

Remember that being a disciple of Christ, or following Christ, is an active process. We can’t just call ourselves disciples. We have to actively follow and this is done through several means. But I think that the journey begins with basic training in the spiritual disciplines.

If we are not careful our religion could become dead. Just like religious ornaments or rituals we could be missing the dynamic abundant life in Christ. If we miss having a genuine, personal, intimate relationship with God then we will have anxiety instead of peace, fear instead of joy, despair instead of power, guilt instead of rest.

There is also a study guide and another version directed towards teens. Oh, and I think that it is essential that we train our teens to have these spiritual disciplines as we develop them ourselves. “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Our children may be the first of the disciples that we make according to the instruction of our Lord.