The Missing Focus of the Spiritual Disciplines

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Talk to anyone who is active in making disciples, and you may soon find yourself having a conversation about the spiritual disciplines, those holy habits that cultivate the soil of our hearts so that God’s Spirit can create life-transforming fruit. Just as physical disciplines such as adequate rest, good diet, and regular exercise promote physical well-being, so also the spiritual disciplines are vital to our spiritual well-being.

But the spiritual disciplines can never be thought of as an end in themselves.

If I am engaged in the disciplines for the wrong reasons – to impress my Christian friends, to satisfy the expectations of my own checklist spirituality, or (worse) to earn God’s favor – I have created my own idol, my own impotent means of achieving my own goals. Jesus said that if I approach the disciplines with that self-absorbed mindset, I may well get what I hope for – impressing my friends or achieving my goals – but God is not impressed (Matthew 6:1-6). All my activity is bent in on myself and serves only my interests, not God’s.

No, the spiritual disciplines must never be understood as an end in themselves but as a means to the greater end: what Jesus called “the first and greatest commandment,” loving God comprehensively, with all that I have and am.

This is all about motive. I am committed to cultivating of these holy habits as the necessary means to the one worthwhile end: knowing and loving God.

But even though loving God is most important, it’s not all that is important.

You may recall that when Jesus pronounced loving God as “the first and greatest commandment,” He went on to add a second great commandment: “love your neighbor as yourself.” If I am to obey my Lord, I must cultivate an outward focus on people around me: my neighbors and co-workers who need Jesus, anyone, in fact, who needs my help.

If I adopt an individualistic mindset about the spiritual disciplines, I can turn them into a kind of sanctified navel-gazing: dedicating myself to the disciplines and forgetting God’s heart for other people. But if I really am getting to know God better, I will find myself dissatisfied with merely building up an impressive inventory of spiritual insights and holy habits. If I am paying attention, God’s Spirit will prompt me to look for people around me who need what I have to offer: my assistance, my prayers, my counsel, the Good News about Jesus.

Jesus called us not only to love God but also to care for our neighbor as diligently as we care for ourselves, so if I really am pursuing the heart of God, He will give me a heart for people outside my circle, outside the faith.

It is my dream that PPC would more and more be the kind of fellowship where God’s people are cultivating the holy habits with the two-fold focus that Jesus taught: yearning to know God and looking around us for people in our lives who need our help.

Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship