Spiritual Disciplines
Donald S. Whitney wroteSpiritual Disciplines for the Christian
Lifeto explain the practical side of living a life with Christ.[1] Through
eleven different areas of spiritual living, Whitney provides a practical and
easy to understand guide on creating and maintaining an intentional
relationship with Christ. His goal is to provide the Christian with the tools
and knowledge necessary to grow in their relationship with Christ through
practice, discipline, and purpose. This is highlighted in his illustration
between Kevin and the Angel in Chapter 1. The angel told Kevin that you
cannot get better at something (in his case, the guitar) without disciplined
practice.[2] The underlying theme in his book is “…for the purpose of
Godliness.” This theme is echoed in each chapter as Whitney explained
how disciplined practice in each spiritual discipline allows us to be better
in our relationship with the Lord.
I felt the Whitney did an amazing job walking through each of the
major spiritual disciplines and how they are important in our lives. Each
chapter provided biblical support to the spiritual discipline, a
commonsense style of explaining the spiritual discipline, and applications
and commentary on how to implement and grow the spiritual discipline in
your life. I agree with Whitney that understanding and implementing
these disciplines are both necessary in growing a strong relationship with
the Lord and are biblically supported. He noted,” the Spiritual Disciplines
found in the Scripture are sufficient for knowing and experiencing God,
and for growing in Christlikeness.”[3] I think this is really important as
there are so many opinions these days on what can bring a person closer
to Christ, however, it’s only the Scriptures that truly tell us what we can
do to have and grow a relationship with the Lord.
Having read this book previously, rereading it gave me a chance to
appreciate Whitney’s book more than I did the first time. I cannot say I
found an area I disagreed with in his text. Rather, I found that I better
understood his work this time around and agreed with his positions more
now than I did when I read his work in my undergrad. As I went through
his book, I kept in mind this post, and identified the three disciplines that I
could further grow on. Those are fasting, silence and solitude, and
journaling.
The first spiritual discipline I need to strengthen is fasting. I am
horrible at it, undisciplined at it, and cannot remember a fast that I
completed one hundred percent faithfully. I am not afraid to admit this,
but I feel guilty about it. Whitney noted that fasting is a voluntary
abstinence from for spiritual purposes.[4] I have participated in
congregational fasts, and have attempted private fasts, and I have failed
at both. The last time I attempted and failed to fast was the end of last
summer. I was fasting red meat as part of a congregational fast during a
period of discernment. About halfway through the fast, my crew at the
firehouse was grilling for the third or fourth time during the fast and I gave
in and broke the fast to join my crew. My problem is that of personal
gluttony. I like food, and that gets the better of me. This is something I
have struggled with my whole life. Food has always been a constant in
my life, and a comfort in some cases, and I have allowed that to skew my
obedience during fasting. I know the only way to fix this is to be more
intentional and have someone help me stay accountable, but I actually
have to do it.
The second spiritual discipline I need to strengthen is silence and
solitude. Whitney explained that they are a pair that go hand in hand as
voluntary disciplines to allow you focus your mind on God and be alone
with him.[5] At first pass, I can say, “yeah, I do that.” Every morning I
take the first hour of my day and spend time with coffee and the Word.
Its just me, my coffee pot, my Bible and Him. This has proven effective in
given me time in silence and solitude to grow closer to Him and have
conversational prayer with Him. Whitney noted that this is a struggle for
many because of business and the enemy’s constant attempt to distract
us.[6] This is where I need to improve. During COVID, due to my full-time
career as a firefighter paramedic, my stress level has gone through the
roof, I am working more than ever, and I struggle to get back to daily
silence and solitude. What was a daily occurrence, even on shift, has
become a two to three day at best activity. When I am at the firehouse,
we are too busy for me to try to fit in quiet time. On the mornings I am
getting ready to go to the firehouse, I am so stressed knowing what I am
going into that I cannot focus on my quiet time. On my off days, if I am
not too tired to get up early enough, I am able to have my quiet time with
Him, but I have found that I feel that my time in not nearly as connected
to Him as it used to be. I don’t know how to fix this as I do not see my
current situation changing soon.
The third spiritual discipline I need to strengthen is journaling.
Whitney notes that journaling is a way to account for God’s work in your
life, and your growth in Him.[7] Some of the Scriptures have their basis in
journaling.[8] I love Whitney’s commentary on this when he noted, “Jesus
did not live and die for sinners to turn us into journal-keepers.”[9] I find
solace in that statement. My wife will write a full journal a month. When I
say a full journal, I mean that she will fill approximately 90 to 100 pages of
her thoughts, prayers, and reflections into a diary like book every month.
She has years of little pocket-sized diaries in boxes of the last several
years of her journey in Christ. That is not me. I maintain three books.
They are the same three composition books that have been going for
several years. One is my prayer book. This is my prayers, prayer
requests, and prayers answered. The second is my theological thoughts.
This one is a composition of my thoughts outside of my academic
documents. The final one is my bible study journal. I will write a verse in
it that jumps out to me and what that verse says to me at that point in
time. The reason I feel I need to grow more here is based on
intentionality and consistency. I have a habit of using post-it notes, steno-
pads, legal pads, and margins of my Bible to capture the thoughts that I
should be putting in these books, and when I remember to copy them
over, I can’t remember the whole illumination that was provided to me at
the time of the note. I have one post-it note that I keep in my prayer book
that just says “pray for…” but instead of “…” it’s a scribble of someone’s
name. I was in a hurry, and someone asked me to pray for them, and to
this day I can’t remember who or for what. I keep that as a reminder to
be more intentional, but I still do not do as good of a job as I really need
to.
Bibliography
Whitney, Donald S.Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Colorado
Springs, CO: NavPress, 2014. Reprint, 2017. Originally published as 1991.
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[1]Donald S. Whitney,Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life(Colorado
Springs, CO: NavPress, 2014; repr., 2017).
[2]Ibid., 2.
[3]Ibid., 7.
[4]Ibid., 192.
[5]Ibid., 224-225.
[6]Ibid., 239.
[7]Ibid., 250.
[8]Ibid., 250.
[9]Ibid., 251.
