Month 5 - Spiritual Disciplines | Week 1: The Lifeline of Prayer
The Disciplines We Will Walk Through This Month
Month 5 focuses on Spiritual Disciplines, not as rigid routines, but as ancient pathways of abiding that the Church has walked for centuries.
Each week will build on the last:
Week 1 - The Lifeline of PrayerPrayer as communion, conversation, and continual abiding - not performance or transaction.
Week 2 - Daily Bread in the WordScripture, not as information to master, but as nourishment that sustains life over time.
Week 3 - Hungry for GodFasting, longing, and rightly ordered desire - learning to recognize what actually satisfies.
Week 4 - In the QuietSilence, solitude, and attentiveness - making space for God rather than filling it with noise.
These disciplines are not meant to impress anyone.They are meant to keep us alive.
They do not earn intimacy with God.They protect it.
Anchor Scriptures For M5 | W1
“Abide in Me, and I in you.” - John 15:4
There comes a point in every discipleship journey where knowledge alone, without communion, will no longer carry you.
Month 5 exists for that moment.
Everything we have walked through so far, identity, obedience, servanthood, endurance - assumes a living, active relationship with God. Spiritual disciplines are not an advanced layer of Christianity reserved for the especially devout. They are the infrastructure that ensures faith to survive contact with real life.
Without disciplines:
Identity drifts into abstraction
Obedience becomes willpower
Endurance turns into grit alone
Service quietly burns us out
Spiritual disciplines aren’t religious weight.They are relational practices.
Prayer stands first not because it’s performative, but because it is essential. It is the discipline that allows everything else to compound instead of collapse.
Prayer Before Religion: Communion From the Beginning
Prayer didn’t begin as you may think, as humanity frantically reaching up to God.
It begins with God dwelling with humanity.
Before sin, before law, before sacrifice, Scripture tells us:
“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” - Genesis 3:8
The first human experience of God wasn’t ritual - it was presence.Conversation was normal. Communion was assumed.
Prayer wasn’t scheduled.It wasn’t performed.It was simply life with God.
Sin fractured that communion - but it didn’t erase God’s desire for it. From Genesis onward, the story of Scripture is the story of God reopening access.
From Garden to Covenant: Prayer as Conversation, Not Control
As Scripture unfolds, prayer takes new forms - but not necessarily a new purpose.
God speaks.Humanity responds.Covenant shapes the relationship.
From Abraham’s intercession (Genesis 18), to Moses speaking with God “face to face” (Exodus 33:11), to David’s raw prayers in the Psalms, prayer remains relational speech, not transactional spiritual management.
“The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.” - Psalm 145:18
Even Israel’s sacrificial system was never meant to replace the relationship:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” - Psalm 51:17
Prayer was never about transactions or controlling outcomes.It was about remaining near.
Christ Restores Abiding
Jesus gives us the blueprint, but He doesn’t introduce the Lord’s prayer as just a new religious technique.
He is completely restoring the communion and conversation that was lost in the garden.
“Abide in Me, and I in you… apart from Me you can do nothing.” - John 15:4–5
Abiding isn’t really about intensity or short-burst emotional feelings.It is about remaining. Mountain high, valley low, and all the experiences in between.
Jesus prays constantly - not to appear spiritual, but because communion with the Father is the source of His life (Mark 1:35, John 5:19).
And when He teaches prayer, He begins with a warning:
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites…” - Matthew 6:5
Prayer isn’t a religious performance.It is not spiritually transactional.
It is a relationship sustained.
The Lord’s Prayer: The Shape of All Prayer
When the disciples ask how to pray, Jesus gives them a prayer that carries the entire biblical story in miniature:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” - Matthew 6:9–13
This prayer is not meant to be rushed or reduced.
It is a framework for abiding:
Our Father - relationship before request
Hallowed be Your name - worship before need
Your kingdom come - surrender before agenda
Daily bread - dependence over excess
Forgiveness - reconciliation over image
Guidance and deliverance - trust over control
Across church history, this prayer has been treated as the baseline, not the aspirational.
Augustine of Hippo taught that prayer forms our desires before it fulfills them.
An honest question:
Do your prayers form your desires, or do they push your desires?
The Rule of St. Benedict anchored daily life around short, repeated prayers, not to earn holiness, but to keep God near throughout the day. C.S Lewis gave us that “Prayer doesn’t change God; it changes me.” Teresa of Ávila called prayer “an intimate sharing between friends.”
Different centuries.Same conviction.
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”- Psalm 23:1
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”- Psalm 51:10
“Teach me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth.”- Psalm 86:11
“Search me, O God, and know my heart…and lead me in the way everlasting.”- Psalm 139:23–24
All orienting our hearts and minds to the will of God, rather than to the will of our flesh.
The Many Forms of Prayer - One Communion
Whilst one of our core goals of prayer is to get to know our Father’s heart, scripture doesn’t limit prayer to a single expression.
“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” - 1 Timothy 2:1
Prayer takes different forms because life does.
Petition - “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11)
Intercession - “I have prayed for you” (Luke 22:32)
Confession - “If we confess our sins…” (1 John 1:9)
Thanksgiving - “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Lament - “How long, O LORD?” (Psalm 13)
Praise - “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD” (Psalm 150:6)
None of these forms are secondary.None are optional to the walk of a Disciple.
They are the language of relationship.
Prayer as Watchfulness: A Vocation, Not an Escape
Throughout the rich halls of Christian history, prayer has not only been practiced as a personal discipline, it has been carried as a vocation of watchfulness.
Long before modern evangelical activism, media, or even widespread literacy, the Church recognized that some work that couldn’t necessarily be seen, measured, or applauded was actually the most essential.
In monastic and cloistered communities, prayer was organized, disciplined, and sustained around the clock, often with specific intentions assigned to specific hours. This was not petty piety. It was intentional labor.
Orders such as the Poor Clares, founded in the 13th century alongside Franciscan reform, committed themselves to lives of enclosure, not to withdraw from the world, but to stand before God on its behalf. Their days and nights were structured around the “Divine Office” fixed hours of prayer that ensured unceasing intercession.
Similarly, Benedictine communities ordered life around the principle of ora et labora - prayer and work - with prayer understood as real work, not preparatory work.
By the early Middle Ages, monasteries functioned as spiritual watchtowers across Europe. While armies marched, plagues spread, and kings rose and fell, there were communities that believed their primary calling was to remain awake before God.
Prayer: Bearing the World’s Weight
Some of these prayer watches were assigned specific burdens/ honors:
Intercession during childbirth (when maternal and infant mortality were high)
Prayers during epidemics and famine
Prayers during war, when those fighting couldn’t pray themselves
There are documented practices, especially among cloistered nuns, of night vigils specifically dedicated to mothers laboring in childbirth, a moment historically associated with extraordinary risk. While families slept, these women remain awake, praying Psalms and petitions for lives they would never see.
This was not sentimentality.
It was theology lived out.
They believed that someone must remain before God when others could not.
Watchmen in Scripture
Scripture doesn’t treat this kind of prayer as symbolic or even optional.
God uses military language to describe it.
“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest.” - Isaiah 62:6
Watchmen don’t decorate walls.They guard them.
They stay awake so others can sleep.
Jesus echoes this same language on the night of His arrest:
“Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” - Matthew 26:41
This is not poetic imagery.It is a command shaped by danger. “That you may not enter into temptation.”
Prayer, in Scripture, is alertness in contested territory.
Prayer As Active Vigilance
The modern church seems to have embedded an instinct to treat prayer as private reflection or emotional regulation. A sort of meditation or secular soft mindfulness.
Scripture doesn’t.
Prayer is described as:
Wrestling (Genesis 32:24–30)
Standing in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30)
Laboring (Colossians 4:12)
Keeping watch (Luke 21:36)
Paul describes Epaphras this way:
“Epaphras… is always struggling on your behalf in his prayers.” - Colossians 4:12
That word struggling is athletic and combative.Prayer costs something.
It requires attention, endurance, and resolve.
Prayer Is The Root of All Ministry
We sometimes treat prayer as support work. Something that is done to back up other “more real, tangible” works and efforts.
Scripture doesn’t.
When pressure increases in Acts, the apostles guard prayer deliberately:
“We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” - Acts 6:4
Prayer isn’t what happens instead of ministry.It is what keeps ministry aligned. It is equal in value and two of the same.
That scripture in Acts 6: 4 doesn’t say “We will devote ourselves to the ministry of the word and then do some prayer too”, it clearly prioritizes, clearly directs us - “We will devote ourselves to prayer…” First.
Prayer is primary, it is breath, it is sanctuary, it is the foundation of our lives.
Without prayer:
Preaching becomes performance
Service becomes self-reliance
Leadership becomes control
“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” - Psalm 127:1
Prayer is both a calling in itself and the common ground of every disciple.
Not everyone will preach.Not everyone will lead publicly.But every disciple abides, every disciple prays.
What Prayer Looks Like Practically
Prayer isn’t measured by eloquence, so lets get off our churianity pedestal for a minute.
A simple, historic rhythm:
Begin with presence and reverence to align - “Our Father…”
If in doubt, pray Scripture slowly - Psalms, the Gospels, Romans 8
Short prayers, often - “Lord, have mercy.” “Keep me near.”
End with trust - “Into Your hands…” (Luke 23:46)
This is how we learn to:
“Pray without ceasing.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Invitation for the Week
Don’t aim for impressive prayers.
Aim for honest presence.
Let prayer become the place where striving quiets, performance dissolves, and communion begins and resumes.
“Abide in Me… and you will bear much fruit.” - John 15:5
Weekly Rally Call - Guest Speaker Sam McCabe
This week’s theme will be carried further in our weekly rally call, where we’ll be joined by Sam McCabe.
📅 Thursday · 7:00pm EST
Sam will help us explore:
prayer as a way of life, not an event
obedience and endurance sustained through abiding
what fruit actually looks like when prayer is lived, not performed
If you can’t make it live, you can still receive the recording and invite - just reach out, or sign up here on Substack, and we’ll make sure you’re included.
Sneak Peek at Month 5 | Spiritual Disciplines - Week 2: Daily Bread in the Word
Most Christians agree the Bible matters. Far fewer treat it like bread.
Scripture wasn’t meant to be consumed occasionally, studied competitively, or quoted selectively to support our opinions. Jesus doesn’t call the Word supplemental. He calls it daily bread.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” - Matthew 4:4
Next week, we will wrestle with a hard but honest question:What happens to a disciple who believes in Scripture, but doesn’t feed on it?
We’ll explore:
Why Scripture forms us more through slow, repeated exposure than intense study alone
How the early church treated the Word as nourishment, not information
The difference between reading Scripture to use it versus reading Scripture to be shaped by it
Why neglecting the Word quietly weakens endurance, obedience, and discernment
This isn’t about reading plans, streaks, or spiritual productivity.
It’s about survival.
Because just as the body weakens without food, the soul slowly starves without the Word, often without realizing it.
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.” - Jeremiah 15:16
Next week, we return to the table - not to analyze the bread, but to eat!
God is with us!
Father,restore prayer to what it was always meant to be,life with You.
Teach us to remain,to listen,to trust.
Let prayer be our lifeline again.Not a moment we visit,but a place we live.
Amen.
I’m glad you’re here.
Let’s run the race - Eyes Up, Chin Up!
Grace and peace,
Sam Johnston
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