Quotes by Donald Whitney
Donald Whitney (b. 1954) — Theologe, Pastor und Autor · evangelikal / reformiert-baptistisch · USA
Donald Whitney (* 1954) ist ein US-amerikanischer reformiert-baptistischer Theologe, Pastor und Hochschullehrer, der über viele Jahre am Southern und Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary lehrte. Er steht für eine biblisch begründete Frömmigkeitspraxis und wurde vor allem durch seine Schriften über geistliche Disziplinen wie Schriftbetrachtung, Gebet und Fasten bekannt. Bibellesern vermittelt er praktische Anleitungen, wie biblische Texte – insbesondere die Psalmen – als direkte Struktur und Orientierung für das persönliche Gebet dienen können.
Era: Today
Recurring topics: Prayer & Silence, Growth & Character, Discipleship, Faith & Trust, The Bible & the Word of God, Wisdom & Understanding, Witness & Mission, Service & Love of Neighbour
Quotes by Donald Whitney
Praying without ceasing means you never really stop conversing with God; you simply have frequent interruptions.
Donald Whitney
Self-discipline is not self-punishment. It is instead an attempt to do what, prompted by the Spirit, you actually want in your heart to do.
Donald Whitney
The worship of God does not always require words, sounds, or actions. Sometimes worship consists of a God-focused stillness and hush.
Donald Whitney
What is success in evangelism? Is it when the person you witness to comes to Christ? Certainly that’s what we want to happen. But if this is success, are we failures whenever we share the gospel and people refuse to believe? Was Jesus an “evangelistic failure” when people like the rich young ruler turned away from Him and His message? Obviously not. Then neither are we when we present Christ and His message and they turn away in unbelief. We need to learn that sharing the gospel is successful evangelism. We ought to have an obsession for souls, and tearfully plead with God to see more people converted, but conversions are fruit that God alone can give. In this regard we are like the postal service. Success is measured by the careful and accurate delivery of the message, not by the response of the recipient. Whenever we share the gospel (which includes the summons to repent and believe), we have succeeded. In the truest sense, all biblical evangelism is successful evangelism, regardless of the results.
Donald Whitney
Serving may be as appreciated as a good testimony in a worship service, but typically it’s as thankless as washing dishes after a church social. Most service, even that which seems the most glamorous, is like an iceberg. Only the eye of God ever sees the larger, hidden part of it.
Donald Whitney
It may be, remember, that God has indeed answered but not in a way that is obvious to us. And it is possible that nothing is amiss in our praying, but that we haven’t yet seen the answer only because God intends for us to persevere in praying about the matter awhile longer. But we must also learn to examine our prayers. Are we asking for things that are outside the will of God or would not glorify Him? Are we praying with selfish motives? Are we failing to deal with the kind of blatant sin that causes God to put all our prayers on hold?
Donald Whitney
You don’t have to serve God long to be tempted to think your work is in vain. Thoughts come that your service is a waste of time. Results are hard to find. Regardless of what you think and see, God promises that your work is never in vain (I Corinthians 15:58). That doesn’t mean you’ll ever see all the fruit of your labors you’d hope for, or that you won’t frequently feel nothing has come of all your efforts. But it does mean that even if you can’t see proof, your service to God is never in vain.
Donald Whitney
Some fear witnessing because they don’t feel confident enough in their persuasive powers or their ability to answer all imaginable objections to the gospel. But the power for evangelism is not in our ability; it is in His gospel. You may have never imagined that an unbeliever could actually be born again by hearing of Christ from your lips. But that’s not humility. It’s doubt, a denial of God’s blessing upon His gospel just because it is spoken by you. Don’t doubt the power of God to add His blessing upon your words when you speak of Christ.
Donald Whitney
The gold of Godliness isn’t found on the surface of Christianity. It has to be dug from the depths with the tools of the Disciplines. But for those who persevere, the treasures are more than worth the troubles.
Donald Whitney
We minimize our joy when we neglect the daily worship of God in private. It is one of the great blessings of life that God does not limit our access to Him and enjoyment of His presence to one day per week! Daily strength, guidance, and encouragement are available to us. An invitation to grow in intimacy with Jesus Christ Himself is open every day. Think of it: The Lord Jesus Christ is willing to meet with you privately for as long as you want, and He is willing- even eager- to meet with you every day!
Donald Whitney
Spiritual disciplines [are] the God-given means by which we are to bring ourselves before the Lord. And as we enjoy a growing relationship with Him through them, He changes us “for the purpose of godliness,” that is, He makes us more like Jesus.
Donald Whitney
In my own pastoral and personal Christian experience, I can say that I’ve never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through discipline. Godliness comes through discipline.
Donald Whitney
Fasting does not ensure the certainty of receiving clear guidance from God. Rightly practiced, however, it does make us more receptive to the One who loves to guide us.
Donald Whitney
Do you realize that tape-recorded readings of the Bible have proven that you can read through the entire Book in seventy-one hours? The average person in the United States watches that much television in less than two weeks. In no more than fifteen minutes a day you can read through the Bible in less than a year’s time.
Donald Whitney
It’s silly when you put it in perspective. We think about missing a meal or two for the sake of becoming more like Jesus and we get anxious. And yet we willingly miss meals sometimes while shopping, working, recreating, or otherwise occupied. Whenever we believe another activity is at that moment more important, we will go without food fearlessly and without complaint. We need to learn that there are times when it can be not only more important, but much more rewarding to feast on God than food (Matthew 4:4). We should not fear the blessings of fasting.
Donald Whitney
The kind of meditation encouraged in the Bible differs from other kinds of meditation in several ways. While some advocate a kind of meditation in which you do your best to empty your mind, Christian meditation involves filling your mind with God and truth. For some, meditation is an attempt to achieve complete mental passivity, but biblical meditation requires constructive mental activity. Worldly meditation employs visualization techniques intended to “create your own reality.” And while Christian history has always had a place for the sanctified use of our God-given imagination in meditation, imagination is our servant to help us meditate on things that are true (Philippians 4:8). Furthermore, instead of “creating our own reality” through visualization, we link meditation with prayer to God and responsible, Spirit-filled human action to effect changes.
Donald Whitney
Advance in the Christian life comes not by the work of the Holy Spirit alone, nor by our work alone, but by our responding to and cooperating with the grace the Holy Spirit initiates and sustains.
Donald Whitney
I still maintain that much of Scripture is plain and straightforward in its meaning. Our problem continues to be more of a lack of action than comprehension. The words of Scripture must be understood to be applied, but until we apply them, we don’t really understand them.
Donald Whitney
God has given you a spiritual gift, and it is not the same as a natural ability. That natural talent, rightly sanctified for God’s use, often points toward the identity of your spiritual gift. But you should find out the special gift God has given you while you’re serving as diligently as you can without that definite information. In fact, in addition to the study of Scripture, the best way to discover and confirm which spiritual gift is yours is through serving.
Donald Whitney
The proportion of your income that you give back to God is one distinct indication of how much you trust Him to provide for your needs… We will give to the extent that we believe God will provide for us. The more we believe God will provide for our needs, the more we are willing to risk giving to Him. And the less we trust God, the less we will give to Him.
Donald Whitney
The theology of the cross simplifies the spiritual life by standing as its primary reference point. Everything in Christian spirituality relates to it. Through the cross we begin our spirituality and by the power and example of the cross we live it.
Donald Whitney
There’s more to a biblical fast than abstaining from food. Without a spiritual purpose for your fast it’s just a weight-loss fast… And without a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centered experience.
Donald Whitney
All our spiritual disciplines should be practiced in pursuit of Christlikeness. We pursue outward conformity to Christlikeness as we practice the same disciplines He practiced. More importantly, we pursue intimacy with Jesus and the inner transformation to Christlikeness when we look to Him through the spiritual disciplines.
Donald Whitney
As wonderful and sophisticated as the heart is, it was never made to be just a heart, but a part of a body. It has no value to the body outside the body. And the heart itself can’t thrive outside the body. As incredible and wonderful as you are, Christian, you were never made just to be an individual Christian, but a part of body. As every organ and every cell is God-created to be an active member of the human body, so every true Christian is God-created to be an active member of a local body of Christ.
Donald Whitney
Christians must realize that just as a fire cannot blaze without fuel, so burning hearts are not kindled by brainless heads. We must not be content to have zeal without knowledge… To follow Christ and become more like Him, we must engage in the Spiritual Discipline of learning.
Donald Whitney
I think the seriousness of evangelism is the main reason it frightens us. We realize that in talking with someone about Christ, Heaven and hell are at stake. The eternal destiny of the person is the issue. And even when we rightly believe that the results of the encounter are in God’s hands and that we are not accountable for the person’s response to the gospel, we still sense a solemn duty to communicate the message faithfully coupled with a holy dread of saying or doing anything that would be a stumbling block to this person’s salvation. Many Christians feel too unprepared for this kind of challenge, or simply have too little faith and are terrified of entering into such an eternally important situation.
Donald Whitney
No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture… Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God intimately.
Donald Whitney
The reason use of money and the things it buys is one of the best indicators of spiritual maturity and Godliness is that we exchange such a great part of our lives for it. Because we invest most of our days working in exchange for money, there is a very real sense in which our money represents us. Therefore, how we use it expresses who we are, what our priorities are, and what’s in our hearts. As we use our money and resources Christianly, we prove our growth in Christlikeness.
Donald Whitney
We are to worship according to the truth of Scripture. We worship God as He is revealed in the Bible, not as we might want Him to be. We worship Him as a God of both mercy and justice, of love and wrath, a God who both welcomes into Heaven and condemns into hell. We are to worship in response to truth. If we don’t, we worship in vain.
Donald Whitney
What if I offered you one thousand dollars for every verse you could memorize in the next seven days? Do you think your attitude toward Scripture memory and your ability to memorize would improve? Any financial reward would be minimal when compared to the accumulating value of the treasure of God’s Word deposited within your mind.
Donald Whitney
When you join a church you make it clear whose side you’re on. You’re telling the family of God that you’re part of the family too, and that you don’t want to be considered on the “outside” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13) any longer.
Donald Whitney
Worship empowers serving; serving expresses worship. Godliness requires a disciplined balance between the two. Those who can maintain service without regular personal and corporate worship are serving in the flesh. It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been serving that way or how well others think they serve, they are not striving according to God’s power, as Paul did, but their own… At the same time, one measure of the authenticity of worship (again, both personal and corporate) is whether it results in a desire to serve… Therefore, we must maintain that to be Godly, we should discipline ourselves for both worship and service. To engage in one without the other is, in reality, to experience neither.
Donald Whitney
Worship is a Spiritual Discipline insofar as it is both an end and a means. The worship of God is an end in itself because worship, as we’ve defined it, is to focus on and respond to God. There is no higher goal than focusing on and responding to God. But worship is also a means in the sense that it is a means to Godliness. The more truly we worship God, the more we become like Him.
Donald Whitney
One of the primary reasons for a lack of godliness is a lack of prayer.
Donald Whitney
Many Christians feel defeated in their prayer lives. To pray even five-to-seven minutes seems like and eternity, and their minds wander much of that time. “I guess it’s me,” many conclude. “I’m just a second-rate Christian.” No, if you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and generally seeking to live in obedience to God’s Word, then the problem likely isn’t you, but your method… Let the words of Scripture be the words of your prayers… By praying through a passage of Scripture, you’ll find yourself praying about most of “the same old things,” but in brand new ways. You’ll likely be able to turn to any part of the Bible and pray through it.
Donald Whitney
Basically, there are three elements to family worship: read the Bible, pray, and sing… On those occasions when time permits, consider these additions: catechize, memorize Scripture, and read other books.
Donald Whitney
Time appears to be so plentiful that losing much of it seems inconsequential. But money is easily wasted as well. And if people threw away their money as thoughtlessly as they throw away their time, we would think them insane. Yet time is infinitely more precious than money because money can’t buy time.
Donald Whitney
Keeping a thoughtful record of your spiritual journey can promote godliness. It can help us in our meditation and prayer. It can remind us of the Lord’s faithfulness and work. It can help us understand and evaluate ourselves. It can help us monitor our goals and priorities as well as maintain other spiritual disciplines.
Donald Whitney
One of the ways the Holy Spirit prompts us to fast is through a need in our lives. If you need stronger prayer about a matter, that’s an invitation from the Lord to fast. If you need God’s guidance in an issue in your life, that’s an encouragement to fast. If you need deliverance or protection, that’s a time to fast. Will you do it? Or will you miss the unique opportunities for grace that He would extend to you through fasting?
Donald Whitney
Parents should teach the things of God to their children at every opportunity, and they should do so with the children individually and collectively. But both in biblical times and now, the best time for parents to teach the things of God to their children on a consistent basis when all the children are present would be in a time of family worship.
Donald Whitney
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Sources: mbts.edu, wayoflife.org, sbts.edu, focusonthefamily.com
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