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No one, and I mean no one, accidentally becomes a mature disciple.
There is this misconception that proximity to mature disciples breeds mature disciples, and that just isn't the case.
Take fitness for example. If your goal is to get bigger, stronger, or faster, you must begin to form your schedule around new and intentional habits. It's not enough to just spend time at a gym. You can't just hang out with people who are fit. What really begins to change things is implementing new habits of intake and output. Elaboration to come.
Suffice it to say that a central aspect of the journey of a disciple is the restructuring of your life around a few key habits, or disciplines as I'll call them here.
As we venture into the world of spiritual disciplines, I will be attempting to format these in an input/output format. What this means is that these disciplines will be arranged in a format that seeks to supplement every personal, intimate, and inward-focused discipline with a corresponding interpersonal, public, outward-focused discipline.
I am shaping things this way in an effort to stem the tide of spiritual one-sidedness. It has been both my experience and observation that people tend to fall into one of these two categories previously mentioned. They will either diligently pursue a life of inward focused disciplines, often to the detriment of loving others, or a life of outward focused disciplines, often leading to the detriment of their own intimacy with Jesus. It is my prayer that the way I approach this article will aid you in avoiding either one of these ditches. Let's begin.
I. Prayer | Witness
To properly begin a discussion of spiritual disciplines, we must begin at the most intimate one of all: prayer.
Prayer the act in which the Christian experiences genuine relationship and communion, or fellowship, with God. Prayer is the divine gift by which we can enter into the throne room of the God's grace in the name God's Son by the power of God's Holy Spirit. It is in prayer that we receive grace to help in our times of need (Hebrews 4:16). It is in prayer that we experience the love that the Father has for the Son (John 17:26).
"If prayer is talking to God about what he has done for you and in you, then witness is talking to others about what God can do for them and in them."
And for the record, prayer isn't hard. It isn't an elaborate string of memorized chants or an intricately crafted speech that we recite to God. Prayer is simply speaking to God about anything and everything. We talk to him about how incredible he is, how thankful we are for him, how much we need him, and how desperately we need his help to love others better.
It is prayer that first and foremost begins to shape us into mature disciples. However, we cannot simply stop at talking to God about everything and everyone. We must look outward with the discipline of witness.
If prayer is talking to God about what he has done for you and in you, then witness is talking to others about what God can do for them and in them. Witnessing simply means to make a statement of truth based on personal knowledge or experience. When we witness to others about God, we are simply talking to them about the God that we pray to, inviting them to experience the same sort of intimacy and relationship that you experience with him.
These two disciplines are coupled together in an effort to help us develop a personal relationship with God and then take the overflow of that relationship and let it out on others for the sake of the gospel.
II. Scripture | Obedience
The next up is the discipline that is most often coupled with prayer, and that is the practice of reading, meditating on, and memorizing scripture. When I say scripture, I simply mean what we call the Bible. I use this word instead of the word Bible simply because that is what the Bible calls itself. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Scriptures are the place where we go to hear God speak to us. If prayer is the place where we predominately speak to God, the Scriptures are the place where God primarily speaks to us. Another name for the Scriptures is the Word of God. They are the perfect and divine Word of the one true God who has chosen to speak to us, his people.
The Word of God helps us to know God better by teaching us about him, his people, his expectations, his likes and dislikes, and his powerful workings in the world he created. It is in the Word of God that we find the truth, and that is ultimately the tool used by the Holy Spirit to transform us in our discipleship journey. We become more like Christ by the internal washing of our dirty and damaged souls by the truth contained in God's Word. As Jesus himself said, "Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth " (John 17:17).
The public and visible outworking of the practice of Scripture is obedience. For many, obedience may still seem like an internal discipline, but allow me to explain.
When we are obedient to the truth contained within the Scriptures, that is a visible act. When we love others the way Jesus commanded us to in the Gospels, people see and feel that love. When we care for the poor as Jesus commanded us, people see that. When we worship God alone, standing upon the solid rock of his name and character and not bending the knee to the idols of our age, people see that. In this way, obedience is a people-loving and people-focused outward action that flows from an internal devotion and discipline of loving and learning the Word of God.
III. Solitude | Community
If there is one discipline that I myself struggle with the most it is solitude. This was an integral part of Jesus' life and ministry, but it challenges me more than any of the others. There is something so holy and heavy about being totally alone with God that has proven to be quite the hurdle for me, but nevertheless, it is something we must learn to do if we are to be shaped into mature disciples of Jesus.
For Jesus, the practice of solitude was often a catalyst or engine that created a successful public ministry. In Luke's gospel account it is stated, "But now even more the report about him (Jesus) went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray" (Luke 5:15-16). For Jesus to be effective in helping and ministering to people, he knew that he needed to be spiritually in tune with his Father in heaven, and the way he did that was by retreating to a desolate, or lonely, place and communing with the Father in prayer.
Spending time with God in solitude is a time where we can hear from him without the noise and distraction of everyday life, but it is also where we become more attuned to the sin patterns and strongholds in our hearts where we need the healing hand of our Father to cleanse us and help us walk in victory.
On the flip side of solitude, however, is community. There is something innate in us as human beings to crave community. Even in the most die-hard monastic communities such as the Carthusians, a particularly hardcore strand of monks, we find that they live together in community. Although they spend almost two-thirds of the calendar year in complete silence, they do it together.
A sure sign of an emotionally and spiritually unhealthy person is a lack of desire for community. For the person who is walking with God and seeking to become like Jesus, community will be a natural overflow of time spent with him. We will want to spend time with other disciples. We will want to be sharpened and poured into by them. We will want to give to them the truths that the Father has been revealing to us.
The danger of each of these is neglecting the other. Jesus spent every day of his life in community with someone, whether it was tax collectors or disciples. But he always made time to get away from everyone and spend time in the lonely places with his Father.
IV. Fasting | Feasting
Of all the disciplines listed in this article, these two, in my opinion, are the easiest to wrap our minds around. Allow me to explain.
On the input side we have fasting. On the output side we have feasting. Both involve real food and both involve real physical feelings. For many of the other practices there is an intangible quality to them. You can hold a Bible and read it, but you cannot exactly feel the outcome of the discipline (at least not immediately). But with fasting and feasting, there is a real tangibility and physical feeling that comes with each that enables these practices to be felt and understood quickly.
With fasting, there is a recognizable feeling that you get when you practice it: hunger.
"If fasting is a practice to prepare us for heaven, then feasting is a rehearsal for what we will do in heaven."
Now, I know that many people try to fast from different things like social media or caffeine, but that is not fasting. That is abstinence, which is a helpful thing to do that many could benefit from. But that is not fasting. Fasting is specifically relegated to not eating. There is something profoundly spiritual about denying yourself food in order to devote yourself to prayer and intimacy with God. There is a heart posture that cannot be replicated any other way. And to top it all off, it is not optional, it is actually expected.
Jesus himself said, "And when you fast," not "And if you fast."
Fasting was viewed as an expected thing for Christians, and I believe it is a lost facet of the diamond of Christianity in today's culture. At critical junctures of Jesus' life and ministry, he fasted in order to devote himself to prayer and relationship with his Father, and we, too, should follow his pattern.
Feasting, on the other hand, is the intentional breaking of bread and the joyous consumption of delicious foods alongside brothers and sisters in Christ. It is gathering around and rejoicing over the blessings and favor of God in the form of food and drink. There is something so profoundly beautiful about the raucous and jubilant nature of feasting that is the closest thing to heaven that can be experienced on earth. After all, the marriage supper of the Lamb in the book of Revelation is indeed a supper. Gathering together with fellow believers and feasting on God's goodness is a way of worshipping and thanking him for his love for us.
If fasting is a practice to prepare us for heaven, then feasting is a rehearsal for what we will do in heaven.
V. Sabbath | Service
Finally, we have the couplet of sabbath and service.
Sabbath-ing is the intentional slowing down and resting at predetermined points in our weekly schedules. God commanded sabbath observance under the Old Covenant Law, instituting a one-in-seven pattern of work and rest. That was the status quo throughout the centuries, all the way to the time of Christ.
When we get to Jesus, however, we see an interesting clarification made by our Lord. He says to the legalistic Pharisees who had twisted the Sabbath into a soul-crushing duty, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). In our Lord's perspective, the Sabbath was a gift from God meant to be used and enjoyed by his people, not a slavish rule used to condemn.
For the Christian, the Sabbath is ultimately observed through the daily resting in Christ from our works that we would seek to do in order to be justified in God's sight. But as a practice, the Sabbath is a much-needed discipline that we can use to slow down from the hustle and bustle of daily life and meditate on the love of our Father for us, his children. We can rest with our families, knowing that our good Father is working "all things for good" on our behalf.
But for many lazy people, the idea of resting comes natural to them. They already rest every day, not from works of the Law, but from work in general. The outworking of rest in Christ is a heart full of love that propels us to go out and love others by serving them with our gifts and abilities. It is through this serving of others that we bring the love of Jesus right to their front door, sometimes literally.
Going and doing for others is of vital importance to spreading the love of Jesus to every square inch of the world. But if we seek to always do for others without intentionally resting in Christ at specific times, we will soon find ourselves burned out and unable to help anyone at all.
I know this is a lot. I understand that it can be daunting to think about implementing all of these disciplines into our daily lives.
The last thing I want to do is burden you with a set of life-stealing laws that you have to obsessively check off in order to feel like an adequate Christian.
My prayer for you is that you will see the value of these disciplines, prayerfully repent for not doing some of them, and ask the Holy Spirit to aid you in beginning to shape your life around these disciplines that our Lord Jesus Christ did daily.
These disciplines are the opposite of what you think. They aren't a heavy burden to wear around your neck; they are a soul-healing and life-giving way of existing that Jesus himself called "the easy yoke." I will end this the same way I ended a previous post, with a quote from Jesus regarding this way of life. I believe it will help focus you on the beauty and simplicity of the life of a disciple of Jesus.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30