I wonder if you’ve ever thought about what would happen to us if we turned off all discipline in our lives. Imagine if we didn’t restrain ourselves when it comes to food and/or didn’t push ourselves to exercise. Imagine if we only worked when we felt like it and only hung out with the people we wanted to, only whenever we wanted to. Imagine if we used our resources only to serve the things we wanted and only watched and engaged with the entertainment we liked without restraint. Imagine if we gave in to every whim and desire that we came across in our day-to-day lives.

What would we look like? What would we be like?

I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly sure that I wouldn’t be a pretty picture or a very nice guy. That’s a sad statement because it highlights that, left to my own devices without any restraint, my heart and head would lead me to destruction. I would have hoped that some good might come out of me if I just did what I wanted, but when I am being totally honest with myself, I’m just not sure! What I am highlighting is the reality that in this earthly life that I lead, there is nothing, or very little at best, good that will be produced in me if I allowed things to happen without restraint.

Everything in our world that is virtuous requires focus, practice, discipline, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit will not form by magic themselves – they don’t grow by chance. They are to be cultivated, and cultivation requires care and attention.

We understand this practically like we’ve touched on at the start. Let’s take the food and exercise example – something I’m guessing we all battle with. To eat well and exercise requires work. We don’t tend to simply want to do these things without practice. Left to our own devices, we will eat the tastiest, easiest-to-obtain food we can come across, and because it tastes so good, we will eat as much of it as we can manage. Also, very few of us enjoy the feeling of running, cycling, or the gym when it all begins. The burning lungs, aching joints, and sick feeling (especially if we’ve eaten everything we wanted) is not something any of us strive for. So, left to our own devices, we would indulge in one and exclude the other, which leaves us in a vicious circle that ultimately will end in an unhealthy existence. To do well in this area requires the ability to say no, to be patient, to perhaps spend more and travel further, to endure pain, to get over insecurity, and to set down other things.

It’s exactly the same principle spiritually. It takes effort to live on this earth and become as heaven intended. To be kind takes effort towards those who act in a way I dislike. To be generous involves me sacrificing something for myself so someone else can have. To be forgiving is to surrender the injustice I have suffered. We could go on all day. Because these things require effort, we often neglect to discipline ourselves in these areas, but just like an indulgent life of eating and non-exercising will end us in trouble, the same will happen spiritually. Just like with our physical bodies, neglecting to invest in who God has called us to be and how we are to serve will not leave us simply where we are. It’s not like some video game where we have reached the checkpoint and our progress is saved. When we stop cultivating these things, we return to a previous state, and without change, we will keep sliding back.

Over my years, I’ve realized that this principle applies not just to our personal lives but also to the church as a whole. For this post, I have highlighted a few common things I have noticed in church that tend to get neglected the most. Before you go thinking I am perfect and have all of these areas really disciplined in my life, I can fully confess that I have failed in these many times.

Personal Devotion to Jesus – too often we have relied on a church service or small group to be our sole input when it comes to God’s place in our lives. The reality is that these ‘events’ should really be the things that we come to when we are filled with Him, not places where we go to be filled. It’s okay that we do receive filling, but the mathematical reality is that these events take up only 3 or 4 hours of our 168-hour week. If these are the only times where we stop long enough to listen and talk with Jesus, then we aren’t likely to be moving forward with Him. Now, just so I’m clear here, I’m not saying that you have to spend 3 hours every day in total silent, scriptural contemplation. If you have the time, then go for it, but the reality is that most of us don’t; we have families, responsibilities, jobs, we get sick, etc., and can’t spend that kind of time doing these practices. Personally devoting our lives to Jesus is a posture, not a practice. Practices will come from the posture. Giving our lives fully to Him means devotion while we pick the kids up, pick up our coffee, serve that client, and run that marathon. It means engaging with Him in each step of our day, listening to Him, talking to Him. Like all of these things listed, this will not come naturally. What comes naturally is putting our own desires and wants first, choosing where we think is best with no thought of God’s existence or intervention. Just to throw a wee bomb in here – it is actually possible to have a practice where we sit in silence reading the Bible and not devote our lives to Jesus.

Practising supernatural risk – I believe fully in the supernatural power of God. I believe that when the Kingdom of God interacts with Earth, we should expect miracles of all sorts. It’s not our goal to chase miracles, but when we chase after the Father, we shouldn’t be surprised when miracles follow. However, the practice of living a supernatural lifestyle feels incredibly counterintuitive to the ‘if I can’t see it, hear it, or touch it, it’s not real’ world in which we live. This attitude is only increasing as we see the rise of AI and its increasing use in deepfake media – seeing or hearing something in our digital world is now no longer proof that it is real. Therefore, stepping out and offering to pray for healing, miraculous provision, or breakthrough can feel like a difficult thing to do when we practice it around others who don’t believe. I love that we get to do it with fellow believers, and whilst on one level that requires faith, it’s a whole different level when we do that in our local supermarket with someone who is unaware of God’s love for them. Therefore, it requires a lot of practice because it doesn’t tend to come naturally to us.

Welcoming ‘outsiders’ – I don’t like the term ‘outsiders’ because I don’t believe that anyone should be considered an outsider, but I’m using the term for a specific purpose. What I’ve realized over the years is that it takes no effort or practice to welcome newcomers that look like us, smell like us, or act like us. We love to welcome people who can offer us something and add something to our churches. It is little effort for these people to join a service, small groups, and begin serving, and that means it’s little effort for us to welcome them. Where it becomes more effort is when those newcomers are different; perhaps in age, stage, and/or socioeconomic group. They might even be different in belief or spiritual practices. Perhaps they don’t know Jesus yet and speak in a way that offends us, or maybe they are following Jesus but they practice their faith differently in a way that challenges us. When these people come along, it requires effort, and in my experience, when a church has given up this discipline, these people stop even trying to come.

Personally reaching beyond the walls of the church – in a similar vein to the last point, when we start to live towards our comforts, we stop trying to practice anything that threatens that comfort, and let’s face it, any form of community engagement for the sake of the gospel can feel pretty uncomfortable. The reason I added the word personally at the beginning of this point is that I am yet to meet any church that never did anything for the community. It’s hard to read the Bible and be in a church that never reached beyond themselves – the great commission alone doesn’t allow us that comfort. However, our desire for comfort means that we find interesting ways to do ‘good’ things. We design ‘outreach’ projects that tick the missional box but don’t personally challenge us too much. Perhaps we take up an offering to give to a local charity that helps the poor, maybe we support a missionary/evangelist who goes out on mission, or we join a prayer team that prays for those far from Jesus in our community. Please hear me, all of these things are great and important, but if they are a church’s sole engagement with mission, we most likely have given in to our comfort.

I doubt I need to say more here, but I hope there is enough of a challenge in this post to make us think about where we might need to allow the Holy Spirit to discipline us further. Where have we allowed ourselves to free fall without thought or influence? What has that produced in us? Let’s not become imperfect through a lack of practice!