Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

Good information on the different types of spiritual disciplines. Have a better understanding regarding the different types. .

I have much difficulty putting this book down whenever I pick it up and start reading. This is such a great book to guide you in your Christian walk, whether you're a new believer or you've been a believer for a while now. It teaches you about real discipline and the importance of reading the word of God in addition to prayer and diligently yielding to the Holy Spirit in your walk. I'm a new believer and it has helped me out a great deal. This teaches you that being a Christian doesn't just mean that you understand the gospel and believe it intellectually; it means putting your full trust in our Lord Christ Jesus by following Him and humbly surrendering to everything He commands for us to do for His glory. If you don't submit to God's will that means you do not trust in His path and you don't trust that obeying His word and living for Him is worth it. I'm here to tell you that living for Christ is totally worth all the pain you may endure in this lifetime due to people rejecting you, unfriending you, and calling you weird because you choose to follow Him and make Him your main priority. If you haven't heard the gospel, here it is: Our Heavenly Father sent His son Jesus Christ to earth in the form of a man. He was born of a virgin supernaturally through immaculate conception and lived a perfect sinless life here on earth for 33 years. Because He was God incarnate, He was able to successfully live without sin. His sole purpose for being sent to Earth was to die for our sins through Crucifixion. One the third day, Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead by His own power, thus proving that He is God and fully capable of defeating Hell [eternal separation from the Heavenly Father]. Jesus came to Earth to become a human sacrifice for those who put their full trust in Him, so that they would spend eternal life in Heaven with Him, as opposed to eternal damnation that all of us rightfully deserve due to our sinful nature. In order for us humans to enter into heaven on our own, we must live a sinless life. This is an impossibility, as we all are sinners. This is why we need salvation from Jesus Christ. When we place our full trust in Him by confessing to Him all of our sins, asking for His forgiveness and repenting, He gives us His precious gift of eternal life. Instantly He will place His Holy Spirit inside of you and when it is you're time to pass away, your spirit and soul will resurrect by the power of His Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead! It is only by the power of Christ's Holy Spirit that we can enter into heaven. Those who reject His Holy Spirit [people who continue to live in sin and never repent] will be sentenced to Hell by default. Jesus didn't have to do this for us, yet He was willing to die for our sins and withstand our punishment on the cross. The punishment that He didn't deserve because of how perfect and Holy He is. God humbled Himself to die in our place. What an amazing demonstration of love. This is real love. Glory be to God Alone <3

Review Title: Looking for Spiritual Growth? (Review of Spiritual Disiplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney) Reviewer: Janice S. Garey ***** 5 Stars This book needs to be on the Reading List of all Christians whether new to the faith or mature believers. It has a wealth of information, inspiration, motivation, and cultivation of what Christians need planted and watered in their hearts to remain and thrive in the vine of faith in Jesus. My ladies’ Bible study group chose to use the study guide without the accompanying book. That works for our group needs. Personally, I wanted to read the book itself and got the Audible version for listening to while walking or doing chores. That has been a wonderful choice for my enrichment and reinforcement. I do glean a lot from our group discussions in finding out how others pursue the spiritual disciplines. The subjects covered are: prayer,worship, scripture memorization, evangelism, serving, stewardship of time and money, scripture application, fasting, silence and solitude, and journaling. I have picked up many insights about the disciplines that I had never considered before. The book does not give a cookie cutter approach, but the author lets the reader know about best practices. As an example, Whitney read of a Puritan who had excellent results from Bible reading combined with meditation on Scripture that is turned into prayers. The author feels that once he put that sequencing of activities into his personal quiet time, his prayers got better results. I am thankful this book is written by a man so that it will be used by all Christians and will not be neglected by many who can benefit from it. I believe this book belongs in the category of a classic Christian book on the faith. The narrator of this book on Audible has a pleasant yet serious tone and is easy to listen to. I think this is one book I need to listen to at least once a year.

I got this book as a gift since I wanted to grow spiritually in my walk with Christ. This book is a must get if you wish to do the same. It is full of sound doctrine as it relates to the spritual doctrines. Easy to follow with lots of reference to scripture. It covers everything from fasting to Bible intake, to worship to stewardship. It's packed with vital information you need for godliness. I believe now is the time to take God seriously and this book will help you understand what that means and how to get there. Get it, you will not be disappointed.

I read this book for myself and then ordered this copy for my fiancé. It’s really, really good. I think it has a good balance of encouragement and spurring on in the challenge of our walk. The biblical references were stellar. I very much enjoyed this book as well as attempting to apply it to my life as I could. There’s 12 chapters so I tried to commit to reading one chapter a month, and each little section each weekend and then try to apply what I read. That was honestly so much fun lol. God knows I could use more discipline in my life so this was a precious challenge. And I love that the goal is not the disciplines themselves but to use these disciplines as tools and means to discipline ourselves to holiness, godliness, and pursuing Christ. Highly, highly recommend!

The beginning was long and drawn out for me with an intro and story that made no sense to me. So I didn’t expect much from this. But reading through the chapters, though I do feel like for some a good chunk of it could be done a way with, there is a some really good stuff in here. A lot of things that I never really thought of that lead to good discussion and food for though in my Bible study group (that I read this book with). We’re in chapter 7 so I’ll update more once we’ve finished (1/18/25)

I try to be judicious in assigning stars to books and products, but I feel this is truly a five star book. The material may not be for everyone, but for its intended audience, i.e. those intent on pursuing godliness, I have found this book to be worth reading and re-reading. I disagree with those who say it is not practical - there are multiple concrete examples of how to _practice_ these disciplines... for example, taking a short chunk of Scripture and meditating on it; emphasizing different words of the text when speaking a verse in the mind or aloud; praying through a verse; setting a goal of writing down X number of insights about a particular goal; etc. (Forgive me if there are errors here in my recollection, I am going from memory). While it is practical, he is also clear on our motivations to lead a spiritually disciplined life. I feel he was successful in increasing a spiritual hunger in the reader. Again I would echo those who have mentioned this in their reviews and also JI Packer who wrote the introduction - this is book worth rereading! I am going to ask to work through the book in a group setting at my church - it would work perfectly for a group study. I believe there are 13 chapters, so it could be easily done in one season of study.

I am doing a 3 hour speech at a women's conference on Spiritual Discipline. I wanted to read some material on it before I started writing my speech (Spiritual Discipline is not a strength of mine). After reading another book by a different author, and feeling somewhat dissatisfied, I asked my pastor if he had a recommendation. He said "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Whitney was one of his favorites. I found Whitney's book very practical and convicting white not being burdensome. It is not legalistic, and doesn't guilt the reader into feeling like a failure, but encourages the reader to desire to deepen our relationship with the Lord. For me, it was a great read and I know I will visit this book many times during my walk with the Lord to remind myself of the blessing of spending time with Him!