Five Spiritual Disciplines that Will Change Your Life

“On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of
godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is
profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also
for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

The other day I was talking to a dear, Christian friend, and the
topic of Spiritual Disciplines came to mind.
I thought, what better time to talk about improving our walk with our
Lord, than at the beginning of a new year.

This time of year we start hearing a lot about New Year’s
resolutions.  Exercise routines, diet
fads and book-reading plans all claim that they will make your life
exponentially better in the coming year.  After a few weeks most people have given up on
their resolutions and settled back into their normal routine. 

There are a number of popular programs and books today on the
spiritual disciplines, but some go too far from Scripture in an effort to
outline various methods of disciplining oneself.  Some of these methods border on the mystical
and the extra-biblical, sometimes exploring areas of Eastern mysticism and New
Age philosophy.  Out of this movement has
come such unbiblical practices such as “hearing” the voice of God and
breathing/soaking/contemplative prayer.  

The best way to avoid error in the understanding of spiritual
disciplines is to stick with clear, scriptural mandates given to all Christians
to engage ourselves in the Word of God where God speaks to us, and in prayer,
where we speak to Him.  When we have a
question about a certain topic or decision in our lives, we should see what the
Bible has to say about it.  God will
never lead us contrary to what He has taught in His Word. (See Titus 1:1-3)

The end goal of the Christian life is to become the man or woman that God
wants us to be.  We do this by allowing
His vision, mission, purposes, and goals to shape our lives.  One way we can lead someone to this is through
spiritual discipline.  A spiritual
discipline is a training activity that helps to shape and mold character over
an extended period of time that accelerates and focuses the process.  Spiritual discipline is the “strict
training” that Paul was talking about when he said, “Everyone who
competes in the games goes into strict training.” (1 Corinthians 9:25)

As we enter 2020, here are five spiritual disciplines that can, and
will, change your life:

Prayer

“About eight days after Jesus said this, he
took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he
was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became bright
as a flash of lightning.” (Luke 9:28–29)

According to Luke 9:29, prayer changes our outlook.  It also changes what we look like to others.  What an amazing moment in Scripture this
passage portrays!  As Jesus is praying, He
changes in front of his disciples.  He
didn’t change clothes or wave a magic wand, but their perception of His
appearance changed the moment He prayed.  In the same way, when you pray, change is
inevitable.  The circumstances will
probably remain the same.  But prayer
changes how you respond to crisis.  It
changes how people see you in crisis.  Without
prayer, nothing transforms.

Fasting

Prior to His public ministry Jesus spent forty days fasting.  Of the five disciplines, I consider fasting to
be the most challenging of them all.  If
you grew up like me, you love food!  Food
is indeed a gift from God.  He provided
it for our renewal, but not our ruin.  And whenever food messes up our faith, we have
a problem.  Whenever the obsession to
satisfy our stomachs becomes greater than our need to satisfy our Savior, then
God leaves it to us to fast.

Tony Evans describes fasting as “the deliberate abstinence from
some form of physical gratification, for a period of time, in order to achieve
a greater spiritual goal.” [1] I
love this definition because it clarifies the purpose of the fast, to obtain a
spiritual goal.  This slight distinction
is what differentiates the discipline of fasting from mere abstinence.  There are a number of ways to fast and various
types of fasts.  For example, it is
possible to fast from pleasures such as social media, the Internet, sex, or any
activity that brings gratification and satisfaction.  However, I have chosen to focus on fasting
from food because it is generally the most common type of fast and the type of
fast that Jesus talked about. (See Matthew 6:16-18; Acts 13:2; Luke 2:37)

Scripture Reading

When we buy electronic gadgets from the store, they often come with
an owner’s manual that informs us how to get the most out of our purchase.  The manual tells us how to use it, how to
protect it, and how to care for it.  These
manuals are written by manufacturers because they are aware of the gadget’s
original purpose.  

The Bible works the same way.  The Scriptures are like an owner’s manual for
human life, and God’s Word help us learn from the lives of others on how to
live as our Creator, intended.  Like the owner’s
manual, the Bible teaches us how to use, protect, and care for our lives.  When we don’t read it, we are building a life
without having read through the manual.  We
have a great tool but lack the know-how to enjoy it to its fullest.  It’s hard to live out what we don’t know.  So we turn to Scripture as food for the soul.
(See 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Worship

Worship is a Christian imperative if we desire to be like Christ.  When we worship the Lord, we engage Him with purpose
and reverence.  When we worship the Lord,
we concentrate our lives on the Supreme Being.  In an age ripe with idolatry and an obsessive
need to place people on the altar of our hearts, where only Christ belongs,
worship must be a daily part of our lives.  In prayer you can be you. In worship you can
forget about you.

When Jesus resists Satan’s offer to bow down and worship him, what He
shows us is the heart of a true worshiper.
Worship is more than affection, it is the acknowledgment of God’s
invaluable worth and a commitment to express that worth by placing Him above
all else.  Worship reveals where our loyalties
lie. (See Psalm 146:6-10)

Service

Service is another activity not often seen as a spiritual
discipline.  But if we are to live like
Christ, then service cannot be seen as an optional exercise.  Service as a regular practice, is not only
something Christians do to give back to society; it is also the heartbeat and
pulse of our call to discipleship.

There is no way we can accurately represent Jesus without emulating
His commitment to serve others.  Our
willingness to serve is an indication that we are maturing in spiritual virtues.
 It’s easy to read a book on humility; it
is much more difficult to actually live with humility.  Service is a tool that God uses to teach us
virtues that can’t be learned from textbooks but only in the school of
experience.  (See Matthew 25:34-40)

[1] The Urban
Alternative, Copyright © 2018 Tony Evans.