A teaching on the Christian spiritual disciplines, drawing on Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines and R. Kent Hughes’s Disciplines of a Godly Man. The full slide deck is available to view and download at the bottom of this article.
An Eagle in the Barnyard
There’s an old parable about an eagle that was raised among chickens. He scratched at the dirt like the chickens. He pecked at the feed like the chickens. He flapped a few feet off the ground and came right back down — like the chickens. He had the wings of an eagle and the habits of a hen.
He wasn’t a chicken. He just lived like one.
The problem was never his nature. It was his upbringing — his training. And that is exactly where many of us live. There are things we want to be free from, and things we want to become. Neither one happens by accident. Both require a choice, and both require discipline.
But hear this carefully: salvation is not earned. If you are in Christ, you already have God’s favor, and nothing you do adds to it. You are not trying to become an eagle. As Kent Hughes puts it, legalism is self-centered and tries to earn God’s favor; discipline is God-centered and flows from grace already given. Discipline doesn’t make you an eagle. It gets you off the ground.
Paul Had a Fear
“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:27 (NLT)
The apostle Paul, of all people, was afraid of becoming a hypocrite. “Do as I say, not as I do” is something we have all heard, and most of us have lived. Hypocrisy is rarely a decision. It grows quietly in the gap between conviction and training. Integrity is the opposite: being the same man in private as in public. If Paul needed training to close that gap, so do we.
How Biblical Discipline Differs
Discipline has real benefits anyone can see — goals reached, time and money protected, confidence built by keeping small promises, steadier minds and healthier relationships. Many traditions have noticed that the body can be trained and mastered. That insight is real. But Scripture warns that self-mastery on its own has “an appearance of wisdom” yet no power to stop the indulgence of the flesh (Colossians 2:23).
| Secular Discipline | Christian Discipline | |
|---|---|---|
| Motivation | Self-reliance, personal success, pride | Love for God, gratitude for grace, humility |
| Source of strength | Human willpower and sheer grit | The Holy Spirit and reliance on God’s grace |
| Ultimate goal | Self-improvement and personal glory | Glorifying God and serving your neighbor |
The difference is not the practice. It is the offering.
S.O.A.R. — Four Moves to Get Off the Ground
S — Surrender
Romans 12:1–2 calls us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Notice the order: the body offered first, then the mind renewed. The disciplines are bodily practices God uses to change how we think. Paul’s word in 1 Timothy 4:7, “train yourself for godliness,” is gymnazō — the root of our word “gymnasium.” Dallas Willard defines a discipline as an activity within our power that enables us to do what we cannot do by direct effort. You cannot become pure by gritting your teeth in the moment. You can train.
O — Obey
Obedience with a plan, not a mood. Most men already know how to train — for sports, careers, and hobbies. We just haven’t pointed it at God. Start by naming two things: what you want freedom from (pornography, the endless scroll, idle hours that lead nowhere — the feed on the barnyard floor) and where you want fruit in (who do I serve, who do I love, and how do I love them according to Scripture?). “Make the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).
Why doesn’t “just try harder” work? Because willpower shows up late. James 1:14–15 describes desire conceiving before sin is born — the craving moves before the decision does. That is why Job didn’t wait for the moment of temptation. “I have made a covenant with my eyes,” he said (Job 31:1). He decided in advance. We train ahead of the moment instead of bracing inside it. And remember David: he stayed home when kings went to war (2 Samuel 11:1). An unoccupied hour is never neutral.
A — Abstain & Add
Willard groups the disciplines into two lists. The disciplines of abstinence — solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice — let go of what normally feeds our desires, so we learn to depend on God. The disciplines of engagement — study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission — draw us into life with God and His people. Notice how many of those require other people. Many men have no deep friendships at all; David and Jonathan show us what committed, honest brotherhood looks like (1 Samuel 18:1–3).
Don’t try all fifteen. Pick one from each list, where you most need growth. And here is the key move: replace, don’t just remove. You don’t beat a habit by willpower alone — you displace it. Take the exact hour that habit owns and give it to a discipline. What we fill our hearts with makes us stronger, so fill them with God.
R — Rest in Grace
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:1 (ESV)
Most people don’t quit at the start. They quit at the first failure. God has not called you to a race you can never win. He called you to one race, and when you fall, it is covered by grace. He wants you free from the shame of failing at this, not buried under more of it. An eagle that drops back into the yard is still an eagle. Get back in the air.
Because of Who You Are
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)
The word for self-control, sōphronismos, means a sound and disciplined mind. You don’t discipline yourself to become an eagle. You discipline yourself because you already are one. Stop eating chicken feed.
“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)
This Week
Read Philippians. Then ask yourself two questions: What would I want freedom from? And what is one discipline I could start this week?