Introduction to the Spiritual Disciplines – Training for Holiness

From the Sports Ministry blog on August 12, 2013.

“Nothing was ever achieved without discipline; and many an athlete and many a man has been ruined because he abandoned discipline and let himself grow slack.” – p.22 – Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. - 1 Timothy 4:7-8


Discipline is the act of deliberately undertaking a set of actions with the purpose of improvement. Discipline is required in ANY endeavor to develop the skills necessary to excel - whether it’s becoming good at a sport, mastering a musical instrument, developing one’s writing ability, or becoming fluent in a new language.

As a personal example, I have a friend that is doing a surgical residency and though he is 'only limited to 80 hours’ of residency training per week, he may spend up to 100 hours studying and learning on his own to hone the skills and knowledge necessary to become a proficient surgeon.

Or take our own NH athlete Quang who won 3rd place in the Men’s Mile at Sports Fest. As a requirement to be on his high school’s Cross-Country Team, Quang runs up to 5 miles daily to develop the speed, stamina, and conditioning needed for his competitions.

Or maybe some of you will go on a diet for your wedding! It requires discipline to stay with the regimen and follow any diet!

Let’s contrast this to a life without discipline. Perhaps the most well-known undisciplined man in the Bible is the cautionary tale of the sluggard:

Proverbs 24:30–34 - I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

As the warning above states, a life without discipline - a life of idleness, of doing nothing, of having goals but merely dreaming of them - leads to no where. You won't complete that project you started. You won't accomplish that goal you set. You won't advance in your education or career...

Now it’s evident that there’s much to gain in our personal and professional lives from having discipline in one’s life. But just as elite athletes or musicians aren’t simply born, but rather are made and developed through nearly 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, neither will Christians become mature in their walk by just doing the bare minimum such as attending church once a week. For if that were the case, then after all these years of watching volleyball games at Sports Fest I’d actually have some kind of volleyball “game,” but I don’t. Therefore osmosis or ‘just being there’ for church on Sundays doesn’t work if one wishes to grow as a Christian. We have to do something. We have to take action to grow our faith.

Undoubtedly it’s hard in our culture and world today for discipline. Ours is a culture eager for quick and easy solutions without any hard work. And we live in world with numerous distractions at our immediate disposal such as the Internet, smart phone games, or Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook etc to keep us from being disciplined.

Paul acknowledges this. Prior to his appeal for us to pursue godliness he calls us to ignore the world and its endless chatter, because the world does not follow Christ: 1 Timothy 4:7a – Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales.

Instead, Paul calls us to be more like Christ by training ourselves which requires work and discipline: 1 Timothy 4:7b - Rather train yourselves to be godly.

For Paul, the pursuit of holiness was the aim of this marathon life. Not his career. Not being disciplined in school to earn good grades. Not being disciplined to learn a new skill. Rather Paul disciplined himself to pursue holiness - to be more like Christ - which has both value on earth and eternally. 1 Timothy 4:8 - For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”


I hope we have the same attitude as Paul. For most of us, every year it seems that we are growing in our education, learning new things at school like Economics, Microbiology, Anatomy, Physics, or learning new skills at work (ie Excel). And we put a lot of time, energy and effort into our work training/certifications/professional developments for our jobs/careers. We advance in our educational and work lives....yet after years of being a Christian, I don't know how much we have seriously grown in our knowledge and relationship with Jesus.

Do we merely repeat the same Bible stories year after year? If I were to ask you the last time you read the Bible, would you state the passage in which you heard at church last Sunday? When was the last time you took a major leap of faith in your walk by trusting in Him and depending on Him alone?


My prayer is that this year, we will adopt Paul's attitude. To value discipline in our personal lives yes, but to pursue godliness and holiness because of our hope now and anticipation of our future lives to come.

We'll be going through the book: Spiritual Disciplines For the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. Here is its list of Spiritual Disciplines which everyone can exercise to train themselves to become mature Christians:

Bible Reading
Bible Verse Memorization
Bible Meditation
Prayer
Worship
Evangelism
Serving
Stewardship
Fasting
Silence and Solitude
Journaling
Learning

Class handout notes:

What are spiritual disciplines?

Spiritual disciplines are spiritual exercises to grow our spiritual lives towards Christ-likeness. They will require work and discipline.

Why do Spiritual Disciplines?

1. They are the means to godliness. "Think of the spiritual disciplines as ways we can place ourselves in the path of God's grace and seek Him."

2. They are expected by God. They are commanded in 1 Timothy 4:7b, and as Christians purchased by Christ, we are commanded to be holy or set apart.

3. They produce freedom. - The more you do the spiritual disciplines, the more you will achieve spiritual freedom by doing them naturally.



Bible Verse: 1 Timothy 4:7b - Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.