In 'Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,' Donald S. Whitney emphasizes the critical importance of prayer and Bible study as foundational practices for Christians, supported by biblical commands. Surveys reveal that many Christians and pastors pray only briefly each day, highlighting a significant gap in prayer discipline and devotion. Whitney encourages believers to view prayer as an opportunity for relationship with God rather than an obligation, while also acknowledging that prayerlessness can stem from various challenges, including lack of discipline and spiritual awareness.

1. Spiritual
Disciplines for
the Christian
Life
Donald S. Whitney
Tuesday 8 May 2012

2. PRAYER...
FOR THE PURPOSE OF
GODLINESS
Chapter 4
Tuesday 8 May 2012

3. A survey of 17,000 evangelical
Christians found that on average
they prayed for less than 5
minutes each day
A survey of 2,000 pastors and
their wives found they prayed for
less than 7 minutes per day.
Whitney says that prayer is
second in importance only to
God’s word.
Carl Lundqvist said this about
prayer and the wog...
Tuesday 8 May 2012

4. “The New Testament church built two other disciplines upon
prayer and Bible study, the Lord’s Supper and small cell
groups. John Wesley emphasized five works of piety by
adding fasting.The medieval mystics wrote about nine
disciplines clustered around three experiences: purgation of
sin, enlightenment of the spirit and union with God. Later the
Keswick Convention approach to practical holiness revolved
around five different religious exercises.Today Richard
Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, lists twelve disciplines
– all of them relevant to the contemporary Christian. But
whatever varying religious exercises we may practice, without
the two basic ones of Emmaus – prayer and Bible reading –
the others are empty and powerless.”
Tuesday 8 May 2012

5. PRAYER IS EXPECTED
Jesus expects us to pray
Matt 6:6-9 But when you pray, go
into your room, close the door and pray
to your Father,who is unseen.Then your
Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you. 7 And when you
pray, do not keep on babbling like
pagans, for they think they will be
heard because of their many words...
9 “This, then, is how you should
pray:“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
Lk 11:9, 18:1
Tuesday 8 May 2012

6. GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR
Tuesday 8 May 2012

7. GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR
Col 4:2 Devote yourselves
to prayer, being watchful
and thankful.
Tuesday 8 May 2012

8. GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR
Col 4:2 Devote yourselves
to prayer, being watchful
and thankful.
1 Thess 5:17 pray
continually,
Tuesday 8 May 2012

9. GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR
Col 4:2 Devote yourselves
to prayer, being watchful
and thankful.
1 Thess 5:17 pray
continually,
Did you notice anything
about these two verses?
Tuesday 8 May 2012

10. GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR
Col 4:2 Devote yourselves
to prayer, being watchful
and thankful.
1 Thess 5:17 pray
continually,
Did you notice anything
about these two verses?
They are commands
Tuesday 8 May 2012

11. GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR
Col 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer,
being watchful and thankful.
How devoted are you to prayer -
compare this devotion to your
devotion to other things in your life.
1 Thess 5:17 pray continually,
This emphasises that prayer is
relational - it comes out of an
unbroken relationship with the Father.
Whitney suggests it is like having two
phone lines - God is always on one of
them and you are aware of him even
when speaking on the other.
Tuesday 8 May 2012

12. Martin Luther,
“As it is the
business of tailors
to make clothes
and cobblers to
mend shoes, so it
is the business of
Christians to
pray.”
Tuesday 8 May 2012

13. What excuses do you use for not
praying? Most people claim other
demands, priorities etc. - yet if
you asked them they would gladly
tell you how important it is to
pray!
The call to prayer is also an
invitation - Heb 4:16 Let us
then approach God’s throne of
grace with confidence, so that we
may receive mercy and find grace to
help us in our time of need.
Tuesday 8 May 2012

14. Note here that there is no need
to be pessimistic about praying -
God is happy to hear and give
grace - prayer is not an obligation
but an opportunity to respond
and receive
God’s command is a command of
love - he wants to hear from us,
to communicate with us and to
bless us.
Tuesday 8 May 2012

15. Prayer is important in spiritual
warfare: John Piper suggests we can
see prayer as the use of a walkie-talkie
in warfare, not for our own
convenience or ease of life.
The example of Jesus in prayer is
important - he prayed and so should
we, he needed it, so do we - Lk
5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely
places and prayed.
Major reasons for prayerlessness:
- a lack of discipline - prayer time is
not planned or prioritised
Tuesday 8 May 2012

16. - the problem of often not “seeing” the
result of prayer - after all it is primarily
a spiritual activity
- sometimes we do not feel God’s
nearness when we pray, it is easy to
pray when we feel God’s closeness
- when we don’t see the need to pray,
Jn 15:5 “apart from me you can do
nothing” - yet we are proud and self
sufficient
- when we do not see God’s greatness,
when we lose focus on the cross
Tuesday 8 May 2012

17. PRAYER IS LEARNED
We start the Christian lives in need
of learning to pray - and continue
to grow and learn about prayer
throughout our Christian lives.
On one level we know instinctively
how to pray - much as a baby
knows how to ‘talk’ from its
earliest days - yet still we need to
see, as the disciples did, that we
need Jesus to teach us to pray - Lk
11:1 - how do we do this?
Tuesday 8 May 2012