Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Study Guide

Review Title: Looking for Spiritual Growth? (Review of Spiritual Disiplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney)Reviewer: Janice S. Garey***** 5 StarsThis book needs to be on the Reading List of all Christians whether new to the faith or mature believers. It has a wealth of information, inspiration, motivation, and cultivation of what Christians need planted and watered in their hearts to remain and thrive in the vine of faith in Jesus.My ladies’ Bible study group chose to use the study guide without the accompanying book. That works for our group needs. Personally, I wanted to read the book itself and got the Audible version for listening to while walking or doing chores. That has been a wonderful choice for my enrichment and reinforcement. I do glean a lot from our group discussions in finding out how others pursue the spiritual disciplines.The subjects covered are: prayer,worship, scripture memorization, evangelism, serving, stewardship of time and money, scripture application, fasting, silence and solitude, and journaling. I have picked up many insights about the disciplines that I had never considered before.The book does not give a cookie cutter approach, but the author lets the reader know about best practices. As an example, Whitney read of a Puritan who had excellent results from Bible reading combined with meditation on Scripture that is turned into prayers. The author feels that once he put that sequencing of activities into his personal quiet time, his prayers got better results.I am thankful this book is written by a man so that it will be used by all Christians and will not be neglected by many who can benefit from it. I believe this book belongs in the category of a classic Christian book on the faith.The narrator of this book on Audible has a pleasant yet serious tone and is easy to listen to. I think this is one book I need to listen to at least once a year.

This is the study guide to the book with the same title by the same author. I have read Foster and several other books on the Christian disciplines over the years and been looking for something to use as a text for teaching on the subject to a younger group of people. This is very practical and will serve it's purpose well.Working my way through the study guide I just want to point out that it's probably necessary to determine in advance which questions to actually discuss. There is a lot of relevant material and if you like to teach interactively you would need several hours for each chapter. Specially teaching younger people you will need to streamline the material. But again, this is the best I found and I am looking forward to using it to teach others about this important subject.

It is a good book, I am about half way through it now. Very convicting and a great guide to how we should be living.

Such a gem! Get it and don't rush through it

The media could not be loaded. Started reading the book with a small group, and then discovered the study guide. It has been a needed tool to really absorb what the book discusses.Allows for great conversation and guidance. If wanting to read to with a group, this is wonderful addition.

Our class has just used the two books, (Life and Ministry and the Pilgrimage Growth Guide) for an intensive study on spiritual disciplines. Each book could stand by itself but we found the questions in this book (life and ministry) as well as the specific scripture passages with the questions enabled us to understand and apply the material the other book (pilgrimage growth guide) had presented. While the subject matter is something that every new Christian should be throughly taught, as a class of mature Christians we found our eyes opened in spiritual matters we thought we already knew. In short, we gained not only knowledge but wisdom. It has been exciting viewing prayer, worship, solitude, and other spiritual disciplines in new (to our eyes) and yet Biblically grounded ways. Several times we found ourselves saying, "why didn't my Sunday School teachers teach us this?" or "Why doesn't the church teach these things to all new christians?" Several members of our class came to the conclusion that our lives would have been better if we had known more about these disciplines and how to apply them to our life. I suspect we will try to teach these disciplines to the younger christians so that they will have the advantage that we did not have.

The book is helpful in the spiritual life

Helpful to stay centered on the book