Spiritual Disciplines

Having a daily time set apart for devotions which include disciplines like praying, reading the Bible, or sitting quietly listening for the voice of God is not going to happen with the kind of results we would like if we are not willing to make some kind of effort each day.  Knowing what we ought to do, or even wanting to do, will not enable us to grow into a deeper relationship with God.  If we are going to be the person of faith we talk about being, it will only be because we commit ourselves to a disciplined and loving relationship with the Creator who brought us into being.   

It is certainly clear that spiritual disciplines have no saving power.  The Word of God says that salvation comes to us because of a gift of grace on God's part and the response of  repentance and faith on our part.  Ephesians 2:9 addressed this illusion as it declares that salvation is "not the results of works."  Spiritual disciplines do not have the power to save; instead, they enable our hearts to experience intimacy with God. Spiritual disciplines remind us that God is interested in the things which stir within us.  They provide for us a means of understanding what God is about in the place where He has put and how we can share with Him in the work of the Kingdom of God.  If we are really not interested in such things, then spiritual disciplines are mostly a waste of time for us.   

Spiritual disciplines do not save us, but they put us in position to serve God.  They do not enable us to put pressure on God to what we think He should do, or what we want Him to do.  Instead, through spiritual disciplines we are enabled to see and understand what He wants us to do.  If we want to know what God wants us to do and how He plans for us to serve him today in the place where we are living, then the best and only way to really find out is to block out some time for Him each day and to do it out of love instead of duty.