Spiritual Disciplines Part I: A Brief Primer on the Spiritual Disciplines
Getting a Lay of the Land
One of my professors in seminary, Dr. Nicholas Ellen, taught me that counseling in its simplest form is evangelism and discipleship. As evangelism counselors want to show their counselees a vision of the ‘good life’. As Christians committed to Scripture we understand that the Triune God alone is Lord of the heavens and the earth. It is God who is the source of all things good, true and beautiful. Outside of the Lord and His revealed will, we have only corruptions or distortions of these things. James 1:17 reminds us of this reality when the Apostle James declares, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Every good gift of the Christian life comes from the hand of God Himself and is a blessing intended for the edification and sanctification of His people.
Counseling as evangelism seeks to show those who are far off not only that the good gifts in their lives come from the very hand of God, but that blessing in its deepest form is found in covenant relationship with the Triune God, that is, walking obediently under the lordship of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Counseling as discipleship is aimed at helping those whom the Lord is drawing near to better understand what He is calling them to as well as helping those who are faltering in their faith to repent and believe that they are called to a higher standard of living. This is the process of sanctification; Christians beholding the glory of the risen Christ and being transformed gradually into His image through the Spirit’s power (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). One thing that I find broadly lacking in those whom I counsel is a commitment to engaging the Lord worshipfully through the Spiritual Disciplines. In a new counseling relationship, one of the first queries that I make is regarding the individual and family rhythms of spiritual disciplines.
What are Spiritual Disciplines?
Spiritual Disciplines are the regular liturgies of life that Christians engage intentionally in the pursuit of a deepened relationship with the Lord. Spiritual Disciplines are the regular rhythms of life that have been given to God’s people in Scripture for the purpose of growing in holiness and their identity in Christ. I do not mean to say that Spiritual Disciplines are how we force God to pay attention to us, but rather that they have been given as a gift to God’s people in order to help us slow down, seek His face and grow in worship and enjoyment of Him. Interestingly enough, Donald Whitney wrote an excellent book called, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life in which he makes the point that each of these disciplines has both an individual and a corporate component to them. By this he means that there are the rhythms that Christians do on their own in the morning and those that they do with others (family, small group, corporate worship, etc.) As you begin thinking through these rhythms this year, I encourage you to prayerfully ask the Lord to show you both how you can apply these disciplines to your own walk and how you may apply them in community with other Christians around you.
Specifically, the disciplines that I plan to cover across the next several posts are; Scripture, Prayer, Evangelism, Serving, Stewardship, Fasting, Silence and Solitude, Journaling, Celebration, Community and Worship.
