I’ve gained a new understanding of personal discipleship with Christ over the last year or so. Maybe not so much new as it is better, deeper, or more refined. On a basic level, personal discipleship is simply learning to be more like Christ. A simple concept, yes, but incredibly complex in fulfilling.
Of course, the way the Holy Spirit works in us is hardly something we can force. And there certainly is no “three easy steps” formula here. However, I think there are a few things that can help make the pursuit of personal discipleship a little more intentional and fluid.
I’ve found that, among other things, it takes proactive practice, honest reflection (benchmarking), and a monitoring of your walk with God.
Jonathan Edwards Resolution 30
Edwards’ Resolution #30 (in my modernized language) I will strive to grow spiritually every week, and to develop a greater awareness of grace than I had before.
Ten Thousand Hours Walking With God
In the book of Genesis (Genesis 4:17), in the genealogy from Adam to Jesus, we briefly encounter the life of Enoch’s walk. He walked with God 365 years and was taken up by God. How about that? God called him up, as one of just two Biblical figures who experienced no earthly death.
I’ve studied this brief statement and the circumstances surrounding it in a lot of detail. I have found, because of Enoch’s faith, and the time he committed to knowing God, he progressively grew into someone who walked with God in a way that was pleasing to God.
To put this into a more modern context, you may be familiar with a notion that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something. This is a premise that Malcolm Gladwell made well-known in his book, Outliers (though a more recent study suggests 10K hours of deliberate practice is merely a “predictor” of it). In either regard, though, Enoch surely was not born with that time already spent with God. And surely, he didn’t spend all 365 of his years in perfect sync with God. He no doubt had to work at it. Just as you and I do.
Just Once a Week?
With that in mind, if you said “I go to my dad’s about once a week, but I miss a week or two here and there. And, while I am with him, I sit and sing a bit before drifting in and out of attention for about an hour or so while he talks,” you probably won’t know your dad too well. In fact, it would take you about 192 years to get your ten thousand hours of practice. Enoch had a long enough lifespan to do that, but you and I don’t.
The point of that illustration is not to shame us about our church attendance. Rather, it’s to point out that we need to be caring about God and walking with him daily. Not just sort of regularly for an hour or two a week. We get to communion with him 24/7/365. And even thought that communication time may have fits and starts, we gotta be always conscious of him and his love. We must enjoy him more, understand him more, and always be advancing in him through active and conscious worship beyond our church walls.
Benchmarking Your Personal Discipleship
So where did we begin? Start with now.
You’re always free to go to God in prayer. To tell him what’s on your mind, in your heart, and ask for his hand in your life. Another good starting point is the Bible. If you don’t have one, visit any church and tell them you would like to have one, I am sure they will go out of their way to help put one in your hands. Or, visit online Bible resources, such as
Looking to read from well-established authors to learn more about personal discipleship? Here are some great options: Discipled By Jesus, Dirty Glory, Street Smarts from Proverbs, Transforming Grace, and Daniel Fusco’s Upward, Inward, and Outward.
Calculate the time you think you have realistically spend with God. Be honest about benchmarking on the quality hours, not the times you’ve encountered with God only to mentally “check off” a perceived obligation. God is not a box to be checked.
Once you’ve done that, consider how you might make plans to be more in communion with God and how you might make that time of higher quality. Here’s a look at my reflections.
Prior to age 18, I spent some time in a few churches, mostly Catholic because my family was rooted in its tradition. I’d been to some after school events that were sponsored by Youth for Christ. I’d attended some summer Vacation Bible School and had visited with church folks at their county fair booths. It would be easy to dismiss most of that as non-quality because of my age and lack of theological depth. But the means for building a foundational relationship wtih God was present and appropriate for my age and maturity, so I consider it quality.
I estimate that 4% of my 157,680 hours during the first 18 years of my life were quality hours spent with God. Great, I am at 6,300 hours! A good start.
After age 18, I attended church just about every week and did some Bible Study time while at college. So, from age 19 to 26, I am pegging about 7.5% of my time with God. That’s 4,599 of my 61,230 hours for a total of 10,899. Got my ten-thousand hours!
Relentlessly Pursue Personal Discipleship
So, I got my ten-thousand hours with God in by the age of 26. Does that mean I should stop? That I can quit?
Well, God didn’t just call me up, so I am guessing not. Remember, time with God is not a task to be checked off a list. It is not about getting ten-thousand hours. It is about progressively growing to be more Christlike and in a deeper spiritual walk with god.
Ten-thousand hours should be the starting point, not the destination. Intentionally walking with God means time spoent in prayer, studying the word, participating in worship, and seriously, seriously connecting with God. That, my friend, is the walk.
Monitor your progress daily and continually refine your ways. Over the fifteen years since I hit my 10K hours, I have been blessed with breathing 131,400 hours. I am going to give myself a charitable 10% of quality time spend with God. That’s another 13,000 hours, for a total of 23,000.
Even though I have done the math, if I am being honest, even that seems high.