Life Disciplines
Discipline is not an end in itself, but a preparation for a higher purpose. Discipline in life is to prepare us to live life more effectively and productively. We practice now to be more skillful later.
Spiritual disciplines are followed so we are ready and able to act rightly when the occasion for work or change presents itself. We are agile opportunists to achieve a high goal.
Christians train in the spiritual disciplines to be ready to respond to an opportunity to do God’s work in a fallen world. God’s work is redemptive. It requires skilled laborers.
Christians look to Christ as their spiritual trainer. He is God to us, in human dimension and form. He translates God into terms we can grasp. This is the love of God. Christians then are to practice the same disciplines practiced by Christ: prayer, solitude, meditation, service, sacrifice, humility, singleness of purpose, simplicity, purity, frugality, and love. There are few truly disciplined Christians today. It is difficult to tell Christians apart from the culture they inhabit.
Here is the purpose of discipline: that God can use us for His purposes because we are trustworthy and available. We are to pray to be effective channels of his power for his honor and glory.
Dallas Willard, Professor of Philosophy at U.S.C. states that prayer is an ongoing discussion with God about working together with God to accomplish His purposes. Such is the prayer of a true disciple.
