We live in the most distracted era in human history. The average person checks their phone over 150 times per day. Notifications, algorithms, and infinite scrolling compete relentlessly for our attention. In this context, the ancient spiritual disciplines — prayer, meditation on Scripture, silence, solitude, and fasting — become acts of holy resistance.
Dallas Willard wrote, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.” The spiritual disciplines are not ways to earn God’s favor but ways to position ourselves to receive what He freely gives. They are, as Richard Foster described them, a “path of disciplined grace.”
Begin with prayer. Not the rushed, perfunctory prayers we offer on autopilot, but the kind of attentive, unhurried communion with God that Jesus modeled when He withdrew to lonely places to pray. Even fifteen minutes of focused prayer can transform the texture of an entire day.
Add Scripture meditation — not speed-reading through a Bible plan, but slowly chewing on a single passage, asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate its meaning and application. The Psalmist delighted in meditating on God’s law “day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
Consider practicing a weekly digital sabbath — twenty-four hours without screens. The silence may feel uncomfortable at first, but it creates space for the “still small voice” of God that Elijah heard on the mountain.