Train Yourself to Be Godly

General Overview

Other Resources

Loving God Through the Disciplines
My Heart Christ's Home

Christian Disciplines
By Oswald Chambers

Covers six disciplines---divine guidance, suffering, peril, prayer, loneliness, and patience.

Inward Disciplines

Meditation

Notes from MeditationDevotional Log (Meditation)
Meditation ppt

Meditation
By James Downing

Study

Discipline of Study

Study Log
Study powerpoint
Class notes
General Bible Quiz: Old Testament
Answer Key to Bible Quiz

Fasting

Notes on Fasting
References on Fasting
Devotional Log (Fasting)
Fasting ppt

God's Chosen Fast
By Arthur Wallis

Prayer

Discipline of Prayer

If You Will Ask
By Oswald Chambers

A Praying Life
By Paul E. Miller

Outward Disciplines

Corporate Disciplines

Confession

Notes on Confession
Devotional Log (Confession)
Confession ppt

Worship

Discipline of Worship

Guidance

Discipline of Guidance

Guidance Power Point
Guidance Log

Praise

Discipline of Praise (p.1)
page 2

The Danger of the Spiritual Disciplines

I Timothy 4:7-8
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.We want to feel closer to God.

We want to live more holy lives.
We want victory over a particular sin or habit.
We feel convicted over our lack of prayer and Bible study.
We resolve at the beginning of the year/month/week to do ____.

There are many reasons people want to jump into the spiritual disciplines, and while the motives above all sound good, the person who thinks the disciplines will accomplish those goals will be bitterly disappointed. Instead of getting them closer to their desires, the goals will eventually turn into a burdensome list, and each failure to measure up will put one deeper in the hole. There is further disappointment when an increase in Bible study and prayer (or any other discipline) fails to remove the besetting sin or ingrained weakness it was supposed to get rid of. Worse yet is the person who increases their practice of the disciplines and doesn't see any real change in their character, yet thinks they are doing so much better because of their increased discipline.

The problem isn't in the disciplines, however. The problem is in us! Imagine if your car broke down on the side of the road, and you were pretty sure the problem was the transmission. When the tow truck arrives, you expect it to fix your transmission so you can be on your way. What? It is not equipped to fix your car? How useless is that?! Why did you even call the tow truck?!
Actually, you didn't expect the tow truck to fix your car. The purpose of the tow truck is to get you to the Mechanic. He is the one equipped to fix the car. In the same way, only our Father can cleanse us, make us holy, grow us in grace, and change us into His likeness.

To the one who wants to get to the Mechanic, He says--come and talk to me (prayer and fasting), listen to what I have to say (solitude, meditation, study), tell me where you are and what you have done (confession), let go of everything else (simplicity), trust me (guidance), learn my ways (service and submission) and rejoice in Me (worship and celebration).
The spiritual disciplines are the tow truck to bring us to the Mechanic, into His workshop--but He is the one doing the work. The goal is not better performance, but closer relationship. As the relationship grows closer, the "better performance" is a result.
Attempts to use the spiritual disciplines to "measure up," change ourselves, or make ourselves feel like better Christians will put us squarely in danger of being self-deceived, modern day Pharisees, whom Jesus called white-washed tombs--pretty on the outside, but inwardly full of dead men's bones.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16