The Danger in Spiritual Disciplines: A Word of Caution About Your New Year Resolutions
By Steven L. Childers
This video (3:15) is an excerpt from an interview with Steve Childers by Desiring God Ministries on the inherent dangers in spiritual disciplines. Video transcript below.
The beginning of January often brings New Year’s resolutions, and followers of Jesus Christ often make New Year’s resolutions to read the Bible more and to pray more.
These kinds of resolutions can be helpful. However, they can also be hurtful, if the underlying motivations are not deeply rooted in the good news of God’s astonishing love for you in Jesus Christ.
Let’s be clear. God calls all followers of Jesus Christ to a life of radical obedience and spiritual discipline.
In Hebrews 12:1 we read, ”let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
At the very end of Paul’s life, he wrote “The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race” (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul used athletic imagery, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
Paul also used phrases like “I press on” (Phil. 3:12), “I strain forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13), and “train yourself for godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7).
However, your primary motivation for a life of radical obedience and developing spiritual disciplines, like prayer and bible reading, should not be a fear of God's judgment if you don’t develop them well, or even the promise of God’s reward if you do.
Be careful. It's easy to begin pursuing the grace of God and not the God of grace, or to be more devoted to having your devotions than to worshiping God during your devotions.
Instead, your motivation should be mostly rooted in your love for God and your deep gratitude for who he is and for all the astonishing love he has shown you in Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit.
Paul writes, “For the love of Christ controls (compels) us” (2 Cor. 5:14), and “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2).
It's with this gospel truth always foremost in your mind and heart that you resolve to fight the good fight of faith and live a life of radical obedience that is marked by a deep love for God and others. (Matt. 22:34–40)
All other motivations will inevitably fail you, even if, and sometimes especially, when, you master spiritual disciplines and become puffed up with pride.
Video Transcript:
An inherent danger in spiritual disciplines is a propensity of the human heart to look to self-effort or practices or methodologies for growth. It is important to understand what is going on underneath the disciplines.
What is the motivation for the discipline?
Picture two people running. What motivates each runner? On the outside, you can’t tell the difference. One of them may have an illegitimate, displeasing-to-God motivation, such as vanity. The other may have a good and virtuous motivation for running that honors God.
The problem is you can’t tell on the outside.
This illustrates one of the greatest dangers of spiritual disciplines: learning how to run but not understanding why you run, or learning how to do things versus why we do them. So one of the most significant things in spiritual disciplines is understanding the affections of your heart.
Is the motive Christ? Is the means Christ?
One of the most significant things in the spiritual disciplines is understanding the affections of your heart.
Take for instance, the proverbial quiet time. If you ask someone anonymously, or maybe on a survey, “What do you really think is happening when you have your quiet time or when you don’t have your quiet time?”
I’m afraid that most evangelicals actually believe they phase in and out of God’s love based on their performance.
Consequently, the quiet time often becomes simply a means by which they follow the discipline of reading Scripture versus a time where they use the Scripture to adore and worship God in Christ for who he is and for all he has done for them.
But this is what is fascinating: You can’t tell when you are just looking on the outside.