We have seen that God is the source to Whom we look for guidance in disciplining our lives to know Him and enjoy His promises. We have also seen that this discipline is first of all focused on our hearts, to nurture both fear and love of God as the foundational affections of our covenant relationship with Him.

The Law of God addresses every area of our lives – how we work, relate to our neighbors, live together in community, and so forth. We cannot unpack all the teaching of God’s Law for all these disciplines at this time. Rather, our focus is on those primary disciplines, spiritual disciplines, as crucial to being able to take up all the other “statutes and judgments” of the Lord for every area of life and all our time.

The work of spiritual discipline is thus an ongoing work, and it consists of two aspects. The first consists of what we might call active spiritual disciplines.

These are the activities, prescribed by God, which His people are called to take up according to His direction to shape their souls for obedience and blessing. As we shall see subsequently, God has given us a number of such disciplines, and we, as His people, fearing and loving Him, must actively take up those He has provided for us. We will not be able to know the Lord or to enjoy His promises, and we will be unable to discipline the time of our lives for His glory, unless we seek the Lord diligently through the active spiritual disciplines He has provided as means to those ends.

As we shall see, the active spiritual disciplines include hearing God’s Word, speaking to one another of His Word, seeking Him through offerings and gifts, keeping the Sabbath, observing sacred feasts and gatherings, exercising a continuous self-watch over our hearts and lives, maintaining everyday reminders of our calling, and holding one another accountable in love for seeking and obeying the Lord.

Shortly we will examine each of these in more detail.

T. M. Moore

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click here to see the weekly studies available thus far.

Want to grow your own spiritual disciplines as you learn more about the unseen realm? Order a copy of The Landscape of Unseen Things, T. M.’s 24-lesson study of that realm which anchors our Christian worldview.Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.