The Habit of Discipleship

Christian living comes down to making a handful of disciplines into habits. The disciplines are not Christian living; they are only the scaffolding that support Christian living. Christian living is not about doing certain religious things. Christian living is about walking in grace. It is about walking on purpose. It is about basking in acceptance. It is not about trying really hard to be good. It is not about trying hard to be good enough that God will accept me. It is quite the opposite of that. It is reveling in the fact that He has already accepted me. Christianity is about accepting the fact that God has accepted me. Nothing I could do could change that, but my heart is prone to forget.

This is why I need the disciplines. However, I don’t think discipline is quite the right word. That word—discipline—at least to me, suggests duty, or obligation. It suggests that I don’t really want to pray but I pray anyway. It hints that I don’t really want to spend time in the Word, but, because I am disciplined, I do it anyway. Discipline hints that I don’t really want to do something, but I do it anyway. This is not Christian living—not Christian living at its best.

Imagine a couple you know has an excellent marriage. They agree to coach you as your marriage is struggling. They tell you that the key to a great marriage is to maintain certain disciplines:

• The discipline of a date night each week, whether or not you want to go out.
• The discipline of kissing each other every day, even if you don’t want to kiss.
• The discipline of an annual retreat where you get away for a couple of nights. Again, you must do this even if you do not want to—even if you don’t get along and don’t like being together.
• You must make love consistently, at least twice a week. If neither of you feels like it, do it anyway.
• The discipline of reading a book on marriage once a year. If it is not interesting to you, so be it; read it anyway.

Does this sound like a great marriage to you? Actually, if you have a bad marriage, these things may make things improve. But, they will be a lot better when you do them because you want to, not because you have to.

In great marriages, couples don’t go out because it is their duty; they go out because there is nothing they would rather do than spend an evening alone together.

So it is with spiritual disciplines. We must maintain spiritual disciplines to grow as disciples. But, we will really grow when we do them out of joy rather than obligation.

We read of stories of disciplined athletes that get up early to torture their bodies. They drink slimy shakes and run till they throw up. Then they do it all again tomorrow. Somehow, we imagine that spiritual warriors are a little like that. They force themselves to do what they hate doing. Isn’t that Christian maturity at its pinnacle—doing consistently what you hate doing? John Ortberg mocks this kind of thinking:

You hear about someone who gets up at four o’clock in the morning to pray, and you feel guilty because you think you don’t pray enough. So you resolve to do that too, even though you are not a “morning person” — at four o’clock you are dazed and confused and groggy and grumpy, and no one wants to be around you at that time of the morning. Even Jesus doesn’t want to be around you at four in the morning. But you think, Well, this is exhausting and miserable — I certainly don’t like doing it — so it must be God’s will for my life. It must be spiritual.

Christian living at its best is when, “the things of earth grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” Christian living is when the early alarm becomes a sweet hour of prayer. Christian living at its best is when I really do, “love to tell the story.”

There is a place for discipline, and discipline may be necessary for habits to form. But, once they are formed, they become automatic. You don’t think about them. Disciples don’t think about whether or not to have a Quiet Time; this is just how they start their day. They have done it so consistently for so long that they don’t think about it. It is who they are. It is what they do. It is their normal.

Having a Quiet Time is either a habit, or I bet you didn’t have a Quiet Time this morning. If we think of discipline as forcing yourself to do something, a startling truth arises: discipline has a very small place in true Christian living. Habits are a huge part of Christian living.

This is an excerpt from a soon-to-be-released book, The Habit of Disicpleship. If you would like to help me with proofreading and other feedback, email me at josh@joshhunt.com