Dabblers or Disciples? : Part 4

Intimate Faith: A Woman's Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines
by Jan Winebrenner

(Page 4 of 5)

Disciplines of Jesus? Life

Even the most casual look at Jesus? life reveals at least fifteen disciplines. Some contemporary scholars as well as some of the classic Christian writers suggest seventeen. We have to ask: if he needed the disciplines of solitude, silence, fasting, meditation, secrecy, and the others we've so often and so carelessly ignored, don't we need them too?

That is what this book is about.

It is about the disciplines that characterized Jesus? life - the commonly accepted ones, along with the often unheeded and long-neglected spiritual disciplines. All, I've discovered, are necessary for us to practice if we are serious about intimacy with God, if we are serious about seeing our faith grow strong and unshakable.

In the chapters that follow, we will study, for example, the discipline of humility. Did you know that it is a discipline that you can aspire to, and actually achieve, through the work of the Holy Spirit? A foundational discipline, humility trains us to allow God to work in our lives. It trains us to bow to his authority and recognize his supremacy. It trains us to live peacefully with mystery, trusting God with the unknowns and uncertainties of our lives. It trains us to live among others with gentleness, without the need to dominate, to control, or to manipulate.

We will also examine the disciplines of abstinence, such as fasting, chastity, simplicity, secrecy, silence, and sacrifice. We will see how God uses these in our lives to prove his sufficiency. We will learn the truth of the statement that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

A study of the spiritual disciplines must include the five we most commonly associate with an active spiritual life - they are important and must not be deleted as other disciplines are added. But their worth to our spiritual lives will be enhanced as we learn to practice the other disciplines as well, disciplines such as celebration and confession and meditation.

The Principle of Immersion

In his great book Seeking the Face of God, Gary Thomas wrote, "The struggle of the Christian life is really a struggle to maintain the centrality of God in our day-to-day lives."

The struggle is perhaps never more real than now. Our world has morphed into a terrifying planet. We live with a level of anxiety and unrest that is unprecedented in our nation's history. How desperately we need to be able to keep God in first place, central to everything we do. But it isn't easy. We are distracted by our fears and disillusioned by our defeats. Even if we've made the decision to "put God first," we aren't sure how to go about it.

Jesus invited us to "remain" in him for safety and comfort, but we're not clear on that either. His call to "abide in me" sounds good, but it too is abstract. We have to wonder: what does "abiding" look like? The spiritual disciplines answer that question. We learn how to keep God central in our day-to-day lives.

Paul wrote, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." The spiritual disciplines open our eyes to the hope of our faith; they act as guides to scenic views where the riches of our inheritance lay before us in majestic panorama. They show us how to avail ourselves of Jesus? resurrection power.

But above all, as we interact with God and see him work on our behalf, we begin to comprehend the truth of our belovedness. We begin to learn how to live in the reality of the invisible truths of the omnipotent God who calls us to share his life and his eternal kingdom.

Dabbling or Dedicated Disciple?

It has been several years since I last rode a horse over a fence. Even today, I can sit very still and summon the feelings that used to overwhelm me when I cantered across a hunt field. I can feel the rush that filled me as Tess and I turned toward a fence. I see her ears prick forward, feel her hooves lift, and then, for one unfathomable instant, gravity submits to us, and horse and rider fly!

Often on Saturday nights, I watch horse shows on the Outdoor Life Channel. Horse and rider enter the arena and the challenges begin as they soar over stone walls and water jumps, over decorated fences and down steep embankments. I watch with the eye of one who has ridden just a little, just enough to recognize some of the small adjustments that make such a big difference in the outcome of a ride.

I see the tiny movement of a hand as it settles higher on the crest, the almost invisible tightening of a leg against the horse's flank, the little movement on the reins that lessens the pressure on the bit. I see the rider's eyes as she counts strides to place her mount the perfect distance from the fence for takeoff. These, and a dozen more almost indiscernible movements, preoccupy the mind of the rider who will meet the challenges of the course.

Copyright © 2003 by Jan Winebrenner

About the Author

Jan Winebrenner is the founder of the Dallas Christian Writers Guild and co-founder of the Writers Roundtable Conferences. She is a frequent speaker and workshop leader for writer's groups and college and university writing classes. Mentoring and encouraging other writers is one of her passions, as is studying classic Christian literature.