Donald Whitney - Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed

Finallya short, simple book packed with practical guidelines to develop a lifestyle of biblical spirituality without sacrificing substance or resorting to mysticism, legalism, or license. Simplify Your Spiritual Life fills a major void. If you practice even half of what Don Whitney recommends, your spiritual life will improve. Give this book a quick read, then go back and carefully read one chapter each day, pray over it, and implement it.

Dr. Joel R. Beeke, president, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; pastor, Heritage Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan

Don Whitney has done it again! This book addresses the greatest fears about the spiritual disciplineshow can I practice disciplines without making it too complicated? Simplify Your Spiritual Life is the right message for the right time.

Pastor Tedd Tripp, pastor, author, conference speaker

Whitney has done it again! Simplify Your Spiritual Life is a marvelous tool for repairing the foundations of your life by going back to study the basics of genuine spirituality such as the Triune God, Christ, Scripture, biblical meditation, and prayer. Though quickly read, each of the sections in this book can help you to know what you long for in the depths of your beingsoul refreshment and the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin, professor of historical theology and reformed spirituality, Toronto Baptist Seminary, Toronto; adjunct professor of church history, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

The writing of Donald Whitney has been a tremendous source of strength and encouragement, both for me personally and for the church I have the privilege of serving. Here is a man who makes Scriptural truth clear and accessible to the ordinary Christian. This book will have a similar effect, not only simplifying your spiritual life, but deepening your spiritual life as well.

CJ Mahaney, senior pastor, Covenant Life Church,

Gaithersburg, Maryland

In these fast-paced times, most people feel too overwhelmed and overworked to spend very much time with God. But in this biblical, practical, and best of all, simple, book, Don Whitney gives dozens of helpful suggestions for cutting through all the clutter in ways that will help us grow in Christ. Most of us know we need to simplify; this wonderful book shows us how.

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken, senior minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia; author of The Message of Salvation

Donald Whitney is a master teacher in the area of spiritual disciplines. And it is obvious that he writes from experiencehe practices what he preaches. Simplify Your Spiritual Life will be helpful to both new and mature belivers.

Jerry Bridges, author of The Pursuit of Holiness

This is a much-needed and wisdom-filled book. In our complex and frantic world, there is a crying need to simplify and prioritize, to move from trivial busyness to significant labor, to move from superficial contact to real fellowship. Don Whitney is your sure-footed guide from the second things to the first things. His timely, biblical and practical advice and counsel will do many an overtaxed and frazzled soul spiritual good. Take, read, learn and grow!

Ligon Duncan, senior minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

For more information, visit NavPress.com.

Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed

Copyright 2003 by Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

NAVPRESS and the NAVPRESS logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Cover design by Ray Moore

Creative Team: Nanci McAlister, Greg Clouse, Amy Spencer, Laura Spray, Pat Reinheimer

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental.

Unless otherwise identified, all Scripture quotations in this publication are taken from the New King James Version (nkjv), copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., used by permission, all rights reserved. Other versions used include: the Holy Bible, New International Version ( NIV ). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011

by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.;

and the New American Standard Bible (nasb), copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, used by permission.

Whitney, Donald S.

Simplify your spiritual life : spiritual disciplines for the overwhelmed / Donald S. Whitney.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-57683-345-3

1. Spiritual life--Christianity. 2. Simplicity--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title.

BV4647.S48W49 2003 248.4--dc21

2003002394

ISBN 978-1-57683-345-2

Build: 2022-03-21 15:23:19 EPUB 3.0

For my descendants, physical and spiritual, present and future.

This will be written for the generation to come, That a people yet to be created may praise the L ORD .
Psalm 102:18

Do more and more with less and lessand do it faster and faster. This is the oft-heard management strategy in our profusely overloaded age. But what would Jesus think? Can you imagine Him flying past the blind beggar, sweat dripping off His brow, yelling at His lagging disciples because they were twenty minutes late for the Jericho prayer breakfast? How would He respond if cell phones went off within the assembled crowds at the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus had little tolerance for clutter or complexity. Simply put, He would not be distracted from His mission.

Jesus loved people and He loved truth. There was an unyielding simplicity about His approach, yet the result was freeing rather than onerous. His simplicity was all about focus. One thing is needful... are the words we remember.

Jesus practiced disciplines like solitude, prayer, and Sabbath because He sought the things above rather than the unfocused distractions of the world He came to save. And even though He was disciplined and focused, He was winsome to those with spiritual need. He served. He healed. He taught. He showed compassion. People saw, and responded to His simple message.

Every age has its own characteristics, wrote pastor and author A. W. Tozer. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. Against this problem, Simplify Your Spiritual Life confronts the clutter, complexities, and distractions of our age and brings us back to the simplicity of the kingdom of God. Don Whitney first bulldozes the often jumbled landscape of our spiritual condition and then presents Jesus before us front and center.