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Bible Studies Faith & Spiritual Growth
Spiritual Disciplines
The old habits — Scripture, prayer, fasting, worship, rest, giving — and what they are and are not for.
The old habits are old because they work, and they earn nothing. Both of those need saying at the start.
What you’ll explore
- 01 Habits do not earn anything
- 02 Scripture: reading, and rereading
- 03 Prayer as a practice, not a mood
- 04 Fasting, and what Jesus assumed about it
- 05 Sabbath and rest
- 06 Worship with the gathered church
- 07 Starting small and staying with it
Habits do not earn anything
Read Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 3:3
Salvation is by grace through faith, not a result of works, so that nobody may boast. Paul asks the Galatians whether, having begun by the Spirit, they are now being perfected by the flesh. The disciplines are how you put yourself where grace is, not a way of paying for it.
Scripture: reading, and rereading
Read Psalm 1:1-3; Psalm 119:105
The blessed man meditates on the law day and night, and the image is a tree by water — sustained rather than impressive. Psalm 119 calls it a lamp for the feet, which lights the next step and not the whole road. Rereading the same passage slowly is closer to the biblical picture than covering ground.
Prayer as a practice, not a mood
Daniel prayed three times a day, as he had always done, including on the day it became illegal. Luke notes that Jesus would withdraw to desolate places and pray — habitually. A practice you keep when you do not feel like it is what carries you when you cannot feel anything.
Fasting, and what Jesus assumed about it
Read Matthew 6:16-18; Isaiah 58:6-7
Jesus says "when you fast", not if, and his instruction is about concealing it rather than about whether to do it. Isaiah is blunt that fasting divorced from justice and generosity is not the fast God chose. Christians differ on how and how often; the New Testament assumes it happens.
Sabbath and rest
Read Exodus 20:8-11; Mark 2:27
The command is grounded in creation and applied to the whole household. Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath — which is a defence of rest, not a repeal of it. Christians differ over how the fourth commandment applies now; almost none of them are getting too much rest.
Worship with the gathered church
Read Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 10:24-25
Singing appears in the New Testament as something done to one another — teaching and admonishing in psalms and hymns. Hebrews frames gathering as provoking each other to love and good works. This is the discipline that is hardest to do alone, and the one most often dropped first.
Starting small and staying with it
Read Zechariah 4:10; Luke 16:10
Zechariah asks who despises the day of small things. Jesus says the one faithful in little is faithful in much. Five honest minutes kept for a year beats an hour abandoned in March, and that is not a lowering of the standard — it is how habits are actually built.
Questions to sit with
- Which of these do you already do without calling it a discipline?
- Which one have you quietly written off as not for you?
- What is the smallest version of it you could actually keep?
Every passage in this study
Go deeper
Where this connects
This study sits inside a larger story. Read the passages above in their own books, and follow the thread back through Scripture as a whole.