Cross-Training - The Inward Disciplines

QUICK REMINDER!!  IT TAKES 28-DAYS TO START A NEW HABIT!!

I love the opportunity to study about the Disciplines.  More then that, I love to read about others who write about the mastery of the Disciplines, because I am everything but a master at the disciplines of my personal faith.  When you think about the word "discipline," you might immediately cringe at the thought of having one more part of your life come under personal discipline.  You might add, that means more sweat and determination and focus and I am lacking on all three counts.  

Two questions often emerge when thinking about the Spiritual Disciplines - Why? and How?  WHY do I need the Disciplines and HOW am I supposed to pursue them?  First, the WHY of the Spiritual Disciplines.  The Disciplines of faith, simply, are a necessary tool for discovery.  Discovery of what you might add?  Discovery of grace, God's divine grace.  In fact, what the disciplines do is place us in the paths of God's grace.  Donald Whitney states that "As we place ourselves in them [disciplines] to seek communion with Christ, His grace flows to us and we are changed."  Ah Ha!!  There is the White Elephant in the room of Discipline - "Change."  This is the HOW of the Disciplines.

The Spiritual Disciplines not only reveal God's grace to us, but the Disciplines are also responsible for personal CHANGE, the one thing that holds many of us back from moving forward in God's grace and beyond our "Alter Call" or "Salvation Experience."  You see, I know a lot of good people who have tremendous personal salvation stories, but whose lives struggle in experiencing and living out grace, and I wonder if it is partly due to that lack of change that has taken place in their lives due to the disciplines.  A good analogy (at least I think it's good) of a believer's life that lacks the disciplines is like a one-legged ice skater.  A believer who lacks the disciplines never really discovers the flow of God's grace, and therefore, lacks propulsion.  Don't get me wrong here, because we certainly need to be aware that the amount of time you spend in the Spiritual Disciplines does not necessarily coincide with how graceful life becomes.  The disciplines only help us to discover the flow of God's grace in the midst of an ungraceful world, giving us more and more strength to stand firmly in the awkward currents of life.  

I find that life throws fewer and fewer curves at us when we discover how the disciplines ground us.