As we close this series on the Spiritual Disciplines, I thought it would be helpful to look at a couple verses that I think reinforce the heart of what it means to practice these disciplines. The list of practices we’ve talked about throughout this series can feel long and overwhelming, and it can seem impossible to practice them all. In reality, we probably won’t practice them all at any given point in our lives—we may do some for a while, and then try others out in various times. I believe that at the heart of each of these, though, should be the desire to know the Lord more and grow in our love for him and our love for others.
Psalm 127:1–3 is a passage that speaks about how important it is that the Lord is the active leader in whatever we do. If he isn’t, whatever we do—whether building a house, watching a city, participating in school, or practicing these disciplines—is “in vain.” It’s a pointless effort if we seek to practice these disciplines with the idea that doing them automatically makes us holy and neglecting them automatically makes us unholy. That is not the heart of them—rather, we should do them with the goal of knowing the Lord more. They aren’t a to-do list which completing makes one a complete Christian.
James 4:8 begins with a promise: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” This comes in the midst of a passage in which James is telling the church to leave behind the worldliness they are tempted to and rather pursue God and his righteousness. The Spiritual Disciplines are tools to help us do this. Again, the practice themselves don’t make us holy, but practicing these things, such as reading and memorizing Scripture, or praying and seeking the Lord in silence and solitude, can be things that facilitate our drawing near to God. This promise has been so meaningful to me, because there are times when I don’t want to do the work, or I don’t feel like God is near to me. But when I have taken the time to seek him and draw near to him, he has always drawn near to me.
I hope that you are not discouraged or overwhelmed at the end of this series. That was never the intention. As our lives and schedules go through rhythms and adjustments, our practices of these various disciplines will change as well. But I hope that you have walked away from this with more knowledge of why these practices are helpful as Christians, and how to do them. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
