What Are Spiritual Disciplines?Right off the bat, we need to acknowledge that Paul commands us to discipline ourselves “for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7 – 8 NASB; cf. 2 Peter 1:5 – 10).They are essential for our growth and not optional when it comes to the Christian life.A discipline is “any activity I can do by direct effort that will help me do what I cannot now do by direct effort.”For example, we practice scales on a piano to learn to play music — not to get really good at playing scales.I don’t practice grammar to get really good at grammar. I study vocabulary and grammar so that I can learn to speak a new language and experience the whole new world that language opens up....