The Disciplines of an Abundant Life with God

Cultivating life with God takes effort and intentionality.

Photo by Vi Tran on Unsplash

Jocko Willink, a former Navy Seal and current author and podcaster said this in an interview with Forbes:

Freedom is what everyone wants — to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

—Jocko Willink

It was a couple of years ago when I heard him say that for the first time. After a moment of reflecting on the concept, it totally made sense. I saw that being true in my own life in the areas I was doing well in and the areas I was not doing so well. I started to reflect on my life as a professional baseball player and that’s when the concept really came together for me.

One of my very best friends throughout college could do anything he wanted to with a baseball. He was a pitcher and he primarily threw a fastball and a curveball. However, when another teammate would say to him, “Hey, try to throw this! And grip the ball this way.” Without fail my buddy was able to successfully throw the new pitch — even though it was his first attempt at the new thing.

Why was he able to do that? Because after years, and years, and years, of disciplined work, he had the freedom to try new things. Things other people — who had not had the same amount of sustained discipline — could not do.

His discipline brought him the freedom to try to be successful in new ways.

Consider Steph Curry, who is literally the greatest three-point shooter since Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden. He is able to make shots from nearly half-court with ease. Why? Because he’s probably attempted a million three-point shots in his life.

It’s his discipline, sustained over a long period of time, that allows him to be the greatest of all time at a specific craft.

We know this to be true at our core. As a student, being disciplined to do our homework during the day allows us the freedom to chill at night. As a worker, having the discipline finish tasks and avoid taking too many breaks at work allows us to have work-free weekends.

This concept is wired into our society.

Disciplines of Walking with Christ

What has shocked me about my own heart is my tendency to simultaneously see the value in disciplined effort over the course of decades as a benefit to my professional baseball career (or any other thing I like doing) but to see such an effort as a burden when it comes to walking with Jesus.

It was about 6 years ago when I realized I wanted all the benefits of walking with Jesus (really the fruit of the Spirit) but I wanted nothing to do with the disciplines of walking with Jesus.

I saw reading the Bible as a burden and chore, then wondered why I had very little wisdom.

I would much rather scroll Twitter than pray, then I wondered why I had little peace.

I would almost refuse to raise my hands in worship, but I constantly felt like I had no freedom.

When God revealed to me the depravity of my heart, it was clear something needed to change. That’s around the time when I started, consciously, taking the spiritual disciplines more seriously. My goal was simple: move from “hoping for the best” in my life with Christ to “seriously cultivating” a life with Christ.

As I look back, I wanted to list out the disciplines I think God calls us to in order to cultivate an abundant life with Him. The abundant life is interesting. It’s a life we can only receive from Christ but a life we have no chance at living if it’s not cultivated.

With that being said, here are 13 disciplines to cultivate if we want to have the life with God Jesus came to give us. These are in no particular order.

1. Remembering

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the most important thing we can do as Christ followers is remember. Adam and Eve forgot in the garden, Jesus remembered in the wilderness.

2. Scripture Contemplation & Memorization

We need to be people who contemplate scripture. We need to mull over it, examine it, ask God questions while reading it. We need to allow scripture to be the lens we see the entire world through — and that only happens with slow contemplation. As we contemplate, we will inevitably memorize.

3. Conversation with God

Talking to God is important. Letting God talk to us is critical. Conversation requires stillness. Stillness allows for God to work miracles. Christ did not perform a single miracle while running or moving quickly. Conversation with God forces us to move at His pace and allow Him to work at His pace in our hearts and minds.

4. Fasting

Do you want to put sin to death? Then we need to be denying our flesh. Fasting is denying something our flesh wants (food, dessert, Netflix, social media) for the sake of knowing and wanting Christ more. Holiness is denying something our flesh wants for the sake of knowing and wanting Christ more. Fasting is critical.

5. Lamenting

I believe some people are perpetually sad because they won’t allow themselves to acknowledge their sadness. I know that’s true because I experienced it. Lamenting is letting the sadness and grief be on full display and letting God pick up the pieces. When we do, He meets us with fullness of joy. In this life of difficulty and suffering, lamenting isn’t an option.

6. Generosity

Time. Money. Gifts. Love. Joy. Peace. Everything, and I mean everything, God has given us can be freely given to others in radical generosity. The gifts God has given us should flow through us to others, not stop with us. This is the reality of Jesus Himself. He was radically generous.

7. Serving

Christ came not to be served, but to serve. If we want to be like Him we must serve. Which means joyfully pursuing opportunities to love people and be generous toward them while only considering the rewards we’ll receive in Heaven.

8. Silence & Solitude

We live in a loud culture. We need silence. We need external silence to allow ourselves to catch up internally. Most often, we keep things loud (music, tv, etc.) because we’re trying to drown out the internal noise. We need soul level silence to hear from God. We need physical and spiritual spaciousness to truly meet with God.

9. Worship

Worship is doing anything we do to the glory of God and to honor Him. What I’m talking about specifically though is corporate worship with the saints. We need to sing, let our body relax in Christ’s presence, and turn our attention to Him with other believers.

10. Confession

Hebrews 12:1-2 makes it clear. We must lay aside every weight and sin that clings close to us if we are going to follow Jesus. This means sins we commit against God and also things that are too much for us to bear even though we’re not necessarily sinning. Unconfessed anything is like trying to run a marathon with a weighted vest on — and it gets heavier with every unconfessed item. There’s no life there. Abundant life will come with abundant confession.

*Important extra here: It’s important our confession is met with truth. When we confess into the void without any truth from God to meet us then things get sideways really quickly. I’m working on a post that explains this more in detail so to make sure you don’t miss it, be sure you’re subscribed.

11. Celebration

There’s no way to look at our future and not celebrate. We will celebrate for all eternity in Heaven. Part of experiencing God’s Kingdom on earth is celebrating His Work now. Celebration helps us enjoy God in the midst of a difficult world. Jesus celebrated even though He knew His inevitable journey to the Cross.

12. Evangelism

Evangelism, especially in the West, requires more faith than perhaps any other potential obedience. We are experiencing the days in which we don’t know how others will feel about us when we bring up the faith or Jesus Christ. This process of sharing the Gospel in faith is easily one of the most sanctifying actions we can take.

13. Making Disciples

Lastly, the final command Jesus gave his disciples was what? Go make disciples. We won’t be able to experience the fullness of abundant life if we are not disciplined to make disciples. When we commit to teaching a younger person or younger in the faith person the ways of Christ, it elevates our own commitment to Jesus. Not that it’s more impressive to God, but in that it requires us to go deeper with God seek Christ more intentionally.

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What disciplines would you add?

Thanks for reading along.

—Brandon