A group of friends are taking advantage of our "free time" during Corona restrictions and reading together this book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.
Chapter 1, ...for the purpose of Godliness.
Which is easier, to be the couch potato, enjoying a nice movie and a bowl of popcorn, or the one who spends their free time training hard?
As our kids can confirm, training and studying can be horrible....unless they have a vision or a motivation. Two of our oldest are working on learning Arabic, and had a very hard time curving their minds around new sounds and letters. When we sat down and dreamt of the very real possibility of visiting cousins living in Lebanon and being able to read the shop signs and speak to the kids and salesmen, they suddenly GOT it. Now they are much more willing to sit and learn, as they can picture the usefulness of their studies.
Don Whitney says in chapter 1, "In my own pastoral and personal Christian experience, I an say that I've never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through discipline. Godliness comes through discipline."
Iron willed self discipline can tend to make us more like the Pharisees, whereas growth in holiness is a gift of God.
Elisabeth Elliot is quoted also here, saying "Freedom and discipline have come to be regarded as mutually exclusive, when in fact freedom is not at all the opposite, but the final reward, of discipline."
Imagine the freedom of being able to play some beautiful musical piece where your hands just know what to do...that only comes from the repeated discipline of practice!
May we be believers that are not "a mile wide and an inch deep," but rather take the time in discipline to grow in depth and resultingly joy in the Lord.
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