In our tour through the Sermon on the Mount, we are coming to Jesus' discussion of religious practices or "spiritual disciplines." While the most basic of these are prayer and the reading, meditation, and memorization of Scripture, we also know about fasting (which we practice less often), and I've even heard some describe evangelism as a spiritual discipline.
For most of us, our experience in the disciplines is anything but disciplined. We tend to go in spurts-- seasons of faithful practice, but dry times and dead spots turn into periods of near, or perhaps complete, abandonment.
We complain that our world does not give us much time or quiet, which is true, but there is no one else to blame but ourselves for not making time with God a priority.
Though no book that I know of can make you disciplined or actually do your praying for you, one volume that I recommend on this topic is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. I've read several of his books and used a couple for small group studies in years past.
By a delightful providence, I got an email yesterday from christianaudio saying that their free audio book of the month is Whitney's Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Follow this link, select "download," and enter the coupon code MAR2009 at checkout. You can also go here to peruse the print copy and read some reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment