The spiritual disciplines as Richard Foster says, “a means of living by God’s grace. …[They] allow us to place ourselves before God so he can transform us.” The task for us, then is to cultivate our daily lives into fertile ground in which God can bring growth and change. This is what the spiritual disciplines are all about.

Dallas Willard defines a discipline as, “any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.” I was a classical guitar student and my teacher wanted me to spend 4-6 hours a day practicing scales and other exercises that were not songs or music in themselves. The last hour or two he wanted me to spend time practicing my actual music. My teacher said, “The only way you can naturally begin to play the music from your heart was if I had spent time practicing the disciplines that prepared my hands and fingers to play what is at the heart of the music.” Spiritual disciplines will, in time, enable us to do what we cannot do now by direct effort.

Below are some descriptions and exercises of some different spiritual disciplines. They are provided by Michael Bishof from SOULEADER Resources. You can also check out our Prayer Practices Posts.