Sunday Sermons

Spiritual Disciplines - Part 1

Mark Dunagan
08/12/01 - Sunday Morning

Spiritual Disciplines

“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people” (Treasury of Christian Discipline, Richard Foster, p. 1). The word “discipline” can be used in various ways, such as “treatment that corrects”. In this study we want to use the word in the sense of “training that develops self-control and character”. There are things in the Bible that we might call “disciplines”, such as meditating on Gods works and word, fasting, prayer, study, and so on.

On A Spiritual Pilgrimage

Every Christian in this life is on a spiritual pilgrimage to heaven, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). The goal is to morally, spiritually, and ethically pattern ourselves after Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1), and to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:14). We are to develop a pure, spiritual and mature love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:5-11). Foster reminds us, “We must not be led to believe that the Disciplines are only for spiritual giants and hence beyond our reach, for only for contemplatives who devote all their time to prayer and meditation. Far from it. God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings: people who have jobs, who care for children, who wash dishes and mow lawns. In fact, the Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our relationships with our husband or wife, our brothers or sisters, our friends and neighbors” (p. 2).

Motivation Check

Before we move any farther, we need to ask ourselves, “What do we want our relationship with God to be like?” Are we only willing to tolerate a “brief dabbling” of exploring the motivation and needs of the soul? The average person does not mind thinking about spiritual realities for a while, but then feels that it is time to get on with real business in the real world. Do we want our relationship with God to be a joy or a burden? It seems that many people want to keep God at arms length and inwardly complain about His expectations. But the Christian life was not created to exterminate laughter from the face of the earth. Joy is certainly the keynote of the Christian life (Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always”). Foster notes that the purpose of such disciplines as prayer, meditation, study, service, worship and so on is the liberation from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear. When the soul is liberated from all that weighs it down, it can hardly be described as dull drudgery, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Philippians 4:11); “Let him who means to love life and see good days” (1 Peter 3:10). “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not whither” (Psalm 1:1-3).

The Primary Requirement

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). The primary requirement for the Christian life is a longing after God. The good news is that anyone can start on this path, beginners are welcome! In fact, the Bible exhorts new converts to start on the path of spiritual maturity right away (Hebrews 5:11-14).

Meditation

The words rendered “meditation” in the Bible carry the ideas of listening to God’s word, reflecting on God’s works, rehearsing God’s deeds, and ruminating on God’s law. “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97); “I have more insight than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation” (119:99). “Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening” (Genesis 24:63); “When I remember Thee on my bed, I meditate on Thee in the night watches” (Psalms 63:6); “My eyes anticipate the night watches, that I may meditate on Thy word” (Psalm 119:148); “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained” (Psalm 8:3).

When we read the Scriptures do we dwell upon what we are reading, or do we read simply to get through the material? Do we really contemplate upon what we have read? Do we seek to apply what we are reading to our daily lives and how we interact with others? Do we use what we read to make needed adjustments in our attitude?

What about our “imagination”? Have we turned that part of us over to God? Instead of allowing our imagination to run wild, have we sanctified it by the Word of God? Do we daydream about heaven, doing good deeds, being good, resisting temptation, and so on? “Let your mind dwell on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Do we contemplate the great things that God has done for His people? Do we dwell upon His love in sending Jesus for us, and the beauty of His creation? Someone noted that when we read the Scriptures or think about the things of God, we should experience both intense intimacy and awful reverence.

Helpful Hints:

1. “If we are constantly being swept off our feet with frantic activity, we will be unable to be attentive…A mind that is harassed and fragmented by external affairs is hardly prepared for meditation” (Foster p. 27).

2. David longed for the opportunity to be alone with the Scriptures. Do we need constant noise around us to make us feel safe?

3. Resist the temptation to pass over passages superficially.

4. Do not read the Bible as a passive observer but as an active participant, remember, the Bible was also written to you(Hebrews 3:7; John 20:30-31).

5. Give your attention to the created order. Look at the trees, really look at them. Take a flower and allow its beauty and symmetry to sink deep in your mind

6. Meditate upon the events of our time and seek to understand their significance. Someone suggested that when you read the newspaper to have the Bible in your other hand. We should do well to hold the events of our time before God and seek from His word to discern how we should react as salt and light in a dark and decaying word.

Solitude

The need to ponder God’s word also creates the need to get away mentally. “The fear of being left alone petrifies people. A new child in the neighborhood sobs to her mother, ‘No one ever plays with me’. A college freshman yearns for his high school days when he was the center of attention: ‘Now, I’m a nobody’. A business executive sits dejected in her office, powerful, yet alone. An old woman lies in a nursing home waiting to go ‘Home’. Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. We keep up a constant stream of words even if they are inane. We buy radios that strap to our wrists or fit over our ears so that, if no one else is around, at least we are not condemned to silence” (Foster p. 96). Yet, silence is not a bad thing if we are pondering God and our relationship with Him. Jesus often took time out to be alone (Luke 6:12; Matthew 14:13,23; Mark 6:31; Matthew 26:36-46). The purpose for such mental solitude is to be prepared to say what needs to be said at the right moment (Proverbs 25:11; 1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:6 “So that you may know how you should respond to each person”). “The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The mark of a championship basketball team is a team that can score points when they are needed. Most of us can get he ball into the hoop eventually, but we cannot do it when it is needed”(p. 99). If we are tired of being caught off guard and missing opportunities, then maybe we will be motivated to spend more time in prayerful reflection and in anticipating questions and objections and possible problems. Such mental solitude also helps us control the tongue (James 3). There are times when we need to “draw near to listen” rather than say anything (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2).

On a practical level we need to take advantage of the little solitudes that fill our day. “Consider the solitude of those early morning moments in bed before the family awakens. Think of the solitude of a morning cup of coffee before beginning the work of the day. There is the solitude of bumper-to-bumper traffic during the freeway rush hour. These tiny snatches of time are often lost to us. What a pity! They can and should be redeemed. They are times for reorienting our lives like a compass needle. They are little moments that helps us to be genuinely present where we are” (Foster pp. 105-106).

Simplicity

Simplicity can be defined as refusing to be a slave to anything but God, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24); “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (6:33); “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). “Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear” (Foster p. 79). When we talk about “simplicity” we are not talking about living on bread and water and having one pair of clothes, rather, we are talking about being “intent on one purpose” (Philippians 2:2), that is the purpose of serving God faithfully, and that being the overriding passion. Foster notes, “Because we lack of divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like. The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality” (p. 80).

Simplicity means that our truth becomes honest, “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; and anything beyond these is of evil” (Matthew 5:37). “If you consent to do a task, do it. Avoid flattery and half-truths. Make honesty and integrity the distinguishing characteristics of your speech” (pp. 93-94). Often fear of what others may think or a hundred other motives determine our “yes” or “no” rather than obedience to the will of God (John 12:42-43). “ There is one thing which all Satan’s cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot take by surprise, and that is simplicity” (p. 94). Simplicity means that we are liberated from the anxiety over earthly possessions (Matthew 6:25-34). “Neither the greedy nor the miserly know this liberty. It has nothing to do with abundance of possessions or their lack. It is the inward spirit of trust” (p. 87). Simplicity means that God is always the center of our lives, for it is so easy to lose focus in the pursuit of legitimate, even good things. Job, position, status, family, friends, security, these and many more can all too quickly become the center of attention (Mark 4:19 “and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”).