I’m starting a new series based on Donald S. Whitney’s book: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.
I plan to provide information from his book on a few topics that have not yet been sufficiently covered in my blog, topics necessary to living the life of grace, running the Christian race.
Today, is a brief introduction from his book that I found very encouraging, hopefully, it will also help you put your Christian race in the proper perspective, thus making it more enjoyable.
[All underscoring, emboldening and colored text is mine in the following large quotation from Whitney’s book.]
Discipline without direction is drudgery:
“Imagine six-year-old Kevin, whose parents have enrolled him in music lessons. After school every afternoon, prompted by his mother, he slouches into the living room and strums songs he must practice but doesn’t like while watching his buddies play baseball in the park across the street. That’s discipline without direction. It’s drudgery.
Now suppose Kevin is visited by an angel one afternoon during guitar practice. In a vision, he’s transported to Carnegie Hall. He’s shown a guitar virtuoso giving a concert. Usually bored by classical music, Kevin is astonished by what he sees and hears. The musician’s fingers dance on the strings with fluidity and grace. Kevin thinks of how stupid and clunky his own hands feel when they halt and falter over the chords. The virtuoso blends clean, soaring notes into a musical aroma that wafts from his guitar…
The vision vanishes, and the angel is again standing in front of Kevin in his living room. “Kevin,” says the angel, “the wonderful musician you saw is you in a few years.” Then pointing at the guitar, the angel declares, “But you must practice!”
When it comes to discipline in the Christian life, many believers feel as Kevin did toward guitar practice—it’s discipline without direction. Prayer threatens to be drudgery. The practical value of meditation on Scripture seems uncertain. The real purpose of a discipline such as fasting is often a mystery.
First, we must understand what we shall become. The Bible says of God’s elect, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). God’s eternal plan ensures that every Christian will ultimately conform to Christlikeness. We will be changed “when he appears” so that “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). If you are born again (see John 3:3-8), this is no vision; this is you, Christian, as soon as “he appears.”
So why talk about discipline? If God has predestined our conformity to Christlikeness, where does discipline fit in? Why not just coast into the promised Christlikeness and forget about discipline?
Although God will grant Christlikeness to us when Jesus returns, until then He intends for us to grow toward it. We aren’t merely to wait for holiness; we’re to pursue it. “Strive for peace with everyone,” we’re commanded in Hebrews 12:14, “and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
Notice carefully what that says: Without holiness—that is, Christlikeness or godliness—no one will see the Lord, regardless of how many times they have been to church or how often they have engaged in religious activities or how spiritual they believe themselves to be.
It’s crucial—crucial—to understand that it’s not our pursuit of holiness that qualifies us to see the Lord. Rather, we are qualified to see the Lord by the Lord, not by good things we do. We cannot produce enough righteousness to impress God and gain admittance into heaven. Instead we can stand before God only in the righteousness that’s been earned by another, Jesus Christ….”
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 3). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.
I think that was enough of a taste of Whitney’s first chapter to share the first point he made, which I found very beneficial: If we know that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, then all of our effort has a wonderful climax; our efforts will be blessed by God and will be efficacious.
Remember how the future that the angel showed Kevin impacted him? It gave him a reason to believe that his practice time would be extremely beneficial, that it was towards a wonderful goal, that he would be a virtuoso musician.
That is the case for born-again Christians, with certainty from God’s own mouth, His word.
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
Buy the book: it is very readable and provides encouragement for running the Christian life.