Christians want to be like Jesus. He shows us what God is like and at the same time shows us what we were created to be like. However, Christians know that we cannot be exactly like Jesus. Our efforts are insufficient to reach his holiness and perfection.
For this reason, Christ came to be and do everything that we were not or did not do. He is our savior by his death and by his life; he paid for our sins and clothed us with his holiness. He not only rescued us from the punishment of our wickedness, but he also gave us a new heart and sent his Spirit so that we could be transformed into new creatures.
If you have been born again, you are no longer the same person as before. But the work that God began in you is not finished yet. —made more and more in his image— throughout our walk on this earth.
How does this happen? “Donald Whitney’s has a lot to say about it. These are just five of the many things I learned from reading this book.
“Spiritual disciplines are those practices found in the scriptures that promote spiritual growth among those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. The biblical way to grow to be more like Jesus is by doing the biblical spiritual disciplines with the proper motivation” (p. 5-6).
1. The discipline for godliness is a fruit of salvation, not a requirement for it.
“calls us to seek piety by practicing the disciplines with gratitude for the grace that has saved us, not as an effort to seek self-righteousness or improve our condition” (p.x).¹
Understanding this point is the key to correctly addressing the subject of spiritual disciplines. To understand this point is to understand the gospel! Yes, God has decided that our effort is non-negotiable in our sanctification process; however, this does not mean that we are holy by our efforts.
We strive because we are saved, no for be saved. Pwe practice the spiritual disciplines —read the Scripture, pray, gather together, serve, offer, among others— with a grateful heart because he was already rescued, not with a eager heart seeking his rescue.
Furthermore, we must never forget that God is the one who gives growth (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Although we actively work to place ourselves in the places where God imparts his grace, growth continues to be by grace.
Don’t lose sight of this as you live a life of discipline. If there is worry, anguish, and guilt in your heart, you are trusting in your efforts and not in God’s work in you.
We practice the spiritual disciplines with a grateful heart that he has already been rescued, not with a heart that is eager for his rescue.
2. Although holiness is God’s work, He uses us to produce it in us.
“We must not simply expect holiness; we must look for it” (p. 3).
Maybe you can say, “Well, if God gives the growth, I don’t have to do anything!” It’s easy to think that…unless you start reading Scripture. The Word calls us over and over again to discipline ourselves and seek holiness (1 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:15-16).
God is the one who brings us from death to life, and he does it through the preaching of his gospel; God is the one who makes us grow in holiness, and he does it through our perseverance in spiritual disciplines.
3. If you are not practicing discipline, you are practicing idolatry.
“To abandon prayer is to fight the battle with our own resources, at best, and to lose interest in the battle, at worst” (p. 91).
This phrase can be applied to any of the spiritual disciplines. When we are in continuous communion with the Lord, receiving grace from him through the means that He has arranged for it, we are acknowledging that we cannot. We are acknowledging that we depend on Him.
Every day is a struggle, and if we are not looking for our strength in God, we are looking for it in something else. It is not about disciplining ourselves when “we have time”, it is about being aware that need God’s grace to every moment of our existence.
God is the one who makes us grow in holiness, and he does it through our perseverance in spiritual disciplines.
4. If you want to grow, you have to read.
“The Christians who grow are the Christians who read” (p. 311).
God has revealed himself through the Word. He could have done it any other way, but in his sovereignty he determined that one book contains everything we need to know about him, about ourselves, and about the world in which we live.
Furthermore, the Christian life is not to be lived alone. God has blessed his Church with teachers who help us grow in our understanding of him and his truth. Some are at our local church, but others are far away. We have the joy of being able to be taught and grow by reading what they have left us printed on paper.
5. Every minute is a gift, and every minute counts.
“God offers you the present time for you to discipline yourself for piety. If you misuse the time that God offers you, he will never offer you that time again” (p. 179).
This is a stark and revealing warning about the use of our most valuable resource. The most common excuse for why we don’t discipline ourselves for godliness is that “we don’t have time.” However, we all have the same number of minutes in the day, and none of them belong to us!
We belong to the Lord and our time belongs to the Lord. He gives us every minute to glorify Him as we fulfill the purpose for which we were put on this earth. Don’t have time for that?
Whitney invites us not to get discouraged, reminding us that through the gospel “God will forgive every millisecond of wasted time” (p. 179); the call is to be intentional and walk making the most of time (Eph. 5:16).
The gospel frees us from guilt for every bad decision we make, but it also gives us the power to make decisions that honor God and lead us to seek him with all of our being through spiritual disciplines.
From the foreword, by JI Packer.
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