I want you to picture in your mind’s eye a team of painters who have been contracted to paint a five-story building. As they begin this project, to gain access to all parts of the structure they will need to put up scaffolding. Hold that thought, but now I want you to think about your relationship with God and how what we refer to as the spiritual disciplines impact that relationship. These disciplines include prayer, worship, bible reading, stewardship, silence, sabbath, solitude, and fasting to name the ones we are most familiar with.

Stay with me now. In this illustration, imagine the building is God and the spiritual disciplines are the scaffolding. The purpose of the scaffolding for the painters is to have access to the building. The purpose of our spiritual scaffolding is to have access to and have intimacy with The Father. The spiritual disciplines are a means to an end – a vibrant relationship with God, not an end in and of themselves.

When the painters are finished with the job, no one says, ‘Wow! look at that beautiful scaffolding.”  Instead, they enjoy and admire the beauty of the freshly painted building. The same holds true for the spiritual disciplines. No one says, look at these disciplines, aren’t they amazing? Instead, those who practice the disciplines declare. “Oh my, what a beautiful Savior! What an awesome God!

We must be careful not to make an idol out of the spiritual disciplines (our scaffolding) making them the main thing, rather than pursuing God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength through the disciplines. I don’t read my bible so I can check it off of my duty roster or to do list, thinking that somehow the more I read the more God will love or approve of me. I read God’s Word so that I can know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. I don’t pray using vain repetition, or treating God like some magical genie who gives me unlimited wishes. I practice the discipline of prayer, so that I can converse with the Father, as I talk to and commune with Him and He speaks into my heart, I grow in my relationship with Him. I fast, give, observe sabbath, have times of silence and solitude not out of drudgery or duty as an obligation, but out of delight, so I can know Him intimately, become more like Jesus and glorify Him.

If I make the disciplines the “end game” and think that God has this scale or scoresheet that He keeps and the higher my score the more He loves and approves of me, then I’m missing the boat big time.  That mindset and kind of thinking results in legalism and a performance-based Christianity and is simply not how God works in our lives.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a strong advocate for the spiritual disciplines. I write about them all the time. Just don’t make an idol out of them. They are a means to an end, not the goal. The “goal” is to press on toward the mark for the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus. He is the goal and the prize. You should absolutely practice the spiritual disciplines. And as you do, don’t admire the spiritual scaffolding, instead gaze upon the glory, majesty, character, and holiness of God, and experience His love, acceptance, forgiveness, fellowship and joy as you enjoy intimacy with the Almighty.

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