Skip to content ↓

5 Cautions for Your Spiritual Disciplines

We are all familiar with the spiritual disciplines and most of us are aware their importance to a healthy Christian life. Most of us practice the disciplines of reading scripture, praying, fellowshipping with other believers, and perhaps even fasting. But a few cautions may be in order as our familiarity with the disciplines may lead to a kind of contempt. In his excellent little book, Holy Helps For a Godly Life, a work on the spiritual disciplines, Richard Rogers offers 5 cautions meant to ensure we are using them rightly.

Understand them well. First you need to throughly consider and properly understand spiritual disciplines and the benefits they may bring. That will allow you to use them in the way they were intended. “Encourage yourself to this, for seeing that some have such great power for well-framing the heart and life (each in its own way), how much more will using all of them together bring a large and generous blessing in this way.” So use the spiritual disciplines, but make sure you know why you use them.

Esteem them highly. Because the spiritual disciplines are precious and have the most noble purposes, you should understand them well so you can use them with the greatest reverence. It’s not enough just to use them, you must use them with proper reverence and gratitude.

Don’t read the Bible so you can Instagram your devotions or humblebrag about it on Twitter.

Do not use them for show. Do not use the spiritual disciplines so you can tell other people about how godly you are, or even so you can show off to yourself. Don’t read the Bible so you can Instagram your devotions or humblebrag about it on Twitter. Examine your heart to ensure you are using the spiritual disciplines for the noblest of purposes, which is to know and honor God.

Use them constantly. Don’t allow yourself to grow weary or to grow slack in your commitment to the spiritual disciplines. Make sure you don’t give up before building the habit, and make sure you don’t grow weary after continuing the habit through many years. You will never outgrow your need for these simple but powerful habits.

Confess your failures. Be diligent and consistent in examining your faults and failures in pursuing the spiritual disciplines. Don’t attempt to cover up your sin and your sinful attitudes, but confess them to the Lord, trusting that he will hear and forgive you. Having confessed and having received his forgiveness, carry on your use of the disciplines in a fresh way, just like you did before.

For those who have been reading Holy Helps For a Godly Life with me, this brings us to the end of the book. Thanks for reading with me, and let’s read another classic together soon.


  • The Phrase that Altered My Thinking Forever

    This week the blog is sponsored by P&R Publishing and is written by Ralph Cunnington. Years ago, I stumbled repeatedly on an ancient phrase that altered my thinking forever.  Distinct yet inseparable. The first time I encountered this phrase was while studying the Council of Chalcedon’s description of the two natures of Christ. Soon after,…

  • Always Look for the Light

    Always Look for the Light

    For many years there was a little potted plant on our kitchen window sill, though I’ve long since forgotten the variety. Year after year that plant would put out a shoot and from the shoot would emerge a single flower. And I observed that no matter how I turned the pot, the flower would respond.…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 18)

    A La Carte: God is good and does good—even in our pain / Dear bride and groom / Sin won’t comfort you / Worthy of the gospel / From self-sufficiency to trusting God’s people / The gods fight for our devotion / and more.

  • Confidence

    God Takes Us Into His Confidence

    Here is another Sunday devotional—a brief thought to orient your heart toward the Lord. God takes the initiative in establishing relationship by reaching out to helpless humanity. He reveals himself to the creatures he has made. But what does it mean for him to provide such revelation of himself? John Calvin began his Institutes by…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (March 16)

    A La Carte: I believe in the death of Julius Caesar and the resurrection of Jesus Christ / Reasons students and pastors shouldn’t use ChatGPT / A 1.3 gigpixel photo of a supernova / What two raw vegans taught me about sharing Jesus / If we realize we’re undeserving, suddenly the world comes alive /…

  • Ask Pastor John

    Ask Pastor John

    I admit it: I felt a little skeptical about Ask Pastor John. To be fair, I feel skeptical about most books that begin in one medium before making the leap to another. Books based on sermons, for example, can often be pretty disappointing—a powerful sermon at a conference can make a bland chapter in a…