If you want to excel at something, you must practice. While this is often applied to sports and music, what does it look like for the Christian pursuing godliness? And what does Scripture tell us about putting our faith to practice?
Dr. Don Whitney wrote Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life as a way to introduce practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers. But this also comes with a caveat. Whitney writes: “It’s crucial—crucial—to understand that it’s not our pursuit of holiness that qualifies us to see the Lord. Rather, we are qualified to see the Lord by the Lord, not by good things we do.” So the question remains, how is it that we become more like Jesus? Paul answers this in 1 Timothy 4:7: “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”
To help you start on the path of incorporating spiritual disciplines into your life, we’ve brought together eleven practices that Don Whitney puts forward in his book, alongside words from the author on why they are important for the purpose of godliness. You might even notice number eleven brings them all together.
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1. Bible Intake
No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God.
2. Prayer
God not only has spoken clearly and powerfully to us through Christ and the Scriptures, He also has a Very Large Ear continuously open to us. He will hear every prayer of His children, even when our prayers are weaker than a snowflake. That’s why, of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is second only to the intake of God’s Word in importance.
3. Worship
God clearly expects us to worship. It’s our purpose! Godliness without the worship of God is unthinkable. But those who pursue godliness must realize that it is possible to worship God in vain. Jesus quoted another Old Testament passage to warn of worshiping God vainly: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” (Matt 15:8-9). Worship is focusing on God and responding to God
4. Evangelism
The main idea I want to communicate here is that godliness requires that we discipline ourselves in the practice of evangelism … Often it is the message of the Cross lived and demonstrated that God uses to open a heart to the gospel, but it is the message of the Cross proclaimed (by word or page) through which the power of God saves those who believe its content.
5. Serving
For Jesus, service meant frequent nights of sleeping outside on the ground. It meant getting up before daylight to have any time alone. But in the midst of all the weariness, hunger, thirst, pain, and inconvenience, Jesus said that the work of serving God was so fulfilling that it was like food. It nourished Him; it strengthened Him; it satisfied Him; and He devoured it. Serving God is work, but there’s no work so gratifying.
6. Stewardship
God wants us to use and enjoy the things He permits us to have, but as stewards of them we must remember that they all belong to Him and should be used for His kingdom.
7. Fasting
There’s more to a biblical fast than merely abstaining from food. Without a spiritual purpose for your fast it’s just a weight-loss fast. … Without a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centered experience about willpower and endurance. Having a biblical purpose for your fast may be the single most important concept to take from this chapter.
8. Silence & Solitude
Solitude is the Spiritual Discipline of voluntarily and temporarily withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes. The period of solitude may last only a few minutes or for days. As with silence, solitude may be sought in order to participate without interruption in other Spiritual Disciplines, or just to be alone with God and think.
9. Journaling
The Christian life is, by definition, a living thing. If we can think of the Discipline of Bible intake as its food and prayer as its breath, many Christians have made journaling its heart. For them it pumps life-maintaining blood into every Discipline connected with it.
10. Learning
No one believes in Jesus unless he or she has heard the story of Jesus and has at least a minimal understanding of it. No one loves Jesus unless he or she knows about Jesus. And just as we cannot believe and love Him about whom we’ve learned nothing, so we cannot grow in our faith and love of Him unless we learn more about Him.
11. Perseverance & Practice
One of the surest signs that someone does cling to Christ is his or her ever-deepening desire to know Him better and to become as much like Him as possible. This is what godliness is, and genuine disciples of Jesus passionately pursue it.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
We aren’t meant to wait for holiness―we’re meant to pursue it. God commands Christians to actively “be holy,” but what does that look like in daily life? Rather than overwhelming legalism or loose boundaries, Don Whitney encourages us to find a practical middle ground through biblical habits.
Don Whitney’s convicting insight on spiritual disciplines will challenge you to grow in new ways as a Christian. Now updated and revised, this edition offers practical suggestions for cultivating spiritual growth, diving into practices such as absorbing Scripture, prayer, worship, service, silence and solitude, journaling, and more.
“Don Whitney’s spiritual feet are blessedly cemented in the wisdom of the Bible. This is as beneficial as it is solid. If you want to be really real with your God, this book provides practical help.”
―J. I. Packer, author and theologian
Regardless of where you are in your Christian walk, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life provides refreshing and profound encouragement for your spirit.
