Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

I have read through Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life a few times over the last few years.  I reread it this week and reminded of what a treasure it is.

It is not a good book on spiritual disciplines.  It is the book on spiritual disciplines.

The book is extremely biblical and practical.  It is a needed resource for a believer at any stage.  It will help you grow in Christ – digest this book!

I took a great quote from each chapter but there is so much great in here!

  1. “I will emphasize that Godliness is the goal of the Disciplines, and when we remember this, the Spiritual Disciplines become a delight instead of drudgery” (17).
  2. “But it’s one thing to be unfamiliar with Scripture when you don’t own a Bible; it’s another thing when you have a bookshelf full.  No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.  Nothing can substitute for it.  There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture” (28).
  3. “What value is there to reading one, three, or more chapters of Scripture only to find that after you’ve finished you can’t recall a thing you’ve read?  It’s better to read a small amount of Scripture and meditate on it than to read an extensive section without meditation” (55).
  4. “If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray?  Prayer is expected of us because we need it.  We will not be like Jesus without it” (69).
  5. “Worship often includes words and actions, but it goes beyond them to the focus of the mind and heart.  Worship is the God-centered focus and response of the inner man; it is being preoccupied with God” (89).
  6. “I’ve never heard it expressed before, but I think the seriousness of evangelism is the main reason it frightens us.  We realize that in talking with someone about Christ, Heaven and hell are at stake” (102).
  7. “Two of the deadliest of our sins – sloth and pride – loath serving” (117).
  8. “God wants us to use and enjoy the things He has allowed us to have, but as stewards of them we’re to remember that they belong to Him and they are primarily to be used for His Kingdom” (141).
  9. “Christians in a gluttonous, denial-less, self-indulgent society may struggle to accept and to begin the practice of fasting” (160).
  10. “Biblical reality calls us to family, fellowship, evangelism, and ministry for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom.  And yet through the Holy Spirit, ‘deep calls to deep’ (Ps. 42:7) in such a way that there is part of our spirit that craves silence and solitude” (184).
  11. “I can analyze my thoughts and action apart from the feelings I had at the time.  From that perspective it’s easier to observe whether I’ve made a spiritual progress or have backslidden in a particular area” (207).
  12. “Learning is a lifelong Discipline, a Spiritual Discipline that characterizes the wise person” (226).
  13. “That’s why even though there are days when you are tempted to quit Christianity altogether, or to give up on the people of God, or to abandon the Spiritual Disciplines as a waste of time, you still hang in there.  It is the Holy Spirit who is causing you to persevere” (238).