The Disciplines of a Godly Life: The Scriptures – It is time to rethink our plans and priorities for 2025. To help us settle in on what the Lord desires for each of us, we need to refresh our minds with God’s plan. One key passage is 1st Timothy 4.7.
Paul says we are to discipline ourselves toward godliness. What are the disciplines that encourage a godly life? Today, we start on that study: The Disciplines of a Godly Life. The first and foremost discipline is the Discipline of the Scriptures.
The Great Necessity
Time alone with God in His Word, the Scriptures, is a great necessity of our spiritual lives. We need to be alone with God daily! We need to find time to get away alone. E. Stanley Jones once described time in the Scriptures as a “time exposure to God.” He used the analogy of his life being like a photographic plate that, when exposed to God, progressively bore the image of God in keeping with the length of exposure.
Please open your Bibles to the center of Psalm 16.11.
Psalm 16:11
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
This morning, let me start with the conclusion of my challenge to you from God’s Word. This verse thrills my heart because in these few words God says so much. He offers us three incredible and priceless benefits from the discipline of Scripture.
The Benefits of a Super Guide
Now with that conclusion in mind, let me explain in an earthly way, what a life arranged by the Lord can be like. It all started in the fall of 1978. I was doing hospital visitation as a ministerial student in Greenville, SC. As I sped down one hospital floor to share Scripture and pray with a sick friend, I glanced in the room next door. For that instant, I caught sight of one of the most forlorn faces I’d ever seen in a hospital bed. After my visit, I proposed to stop in and see if there was anything I could do to cheer that sad man next door. I slipped in, stood by his bed, read Scripture, and prayed. I found he was one of the loneliest Christians I’d ever met. So since it was Thanksgiving time I said, “What can I do to encourage you?” To my surprise he brightened up and said “If you would bring me a Wendy’s ¾ pound triple burger it would mean so much to me for my Thanksgiving Dinner.”
Well, I did it. An hour later, I was back on my way to my apartment after sharing a bit of Christ’s love to cheer that man up. He asked me for my name and address so we could keep in touch. I never knew how much that visit was going to impact my life.
To make a long story short, that man was a very wealthy heir to a Texas oil field family. He was along and away from family, and the Lord sent me to his room at a moment when he desperately needed comfort and hope.
Two weeks later I got his call asking when we could go to dinner. When he arrived it was in an extended limo. We went to a place without prices on the menu, and our meal was prepared at our table. That evening he asked if I would join him on a little trip with his friends for a week. Being young and un-entangled in many responsibilities, I said sure. That was the start of one of the fantastic 10 days of my life as Lee and two friends (now pastors of churches) went on a whirlwind trip to England, Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy – all expenses paid.
The point of the story is that Lee made all the arrangements. I never had been to the places he took me to. He had, and he arranged everything. We were picked up and chauffeured to sites, museums, restaurants, and plays. It was an unbelievable experience of the world the way the rich and famous travel. But more than that, it was a lesson for me that someone with greater resources, experience, and knowledge can do a better job at arranging events than I could.
Three Priceless Benefits
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