9
"indispensable foundation" upon which spiritual formation rests [DW, 64] and "the controlling
principle of the renovated heart and the restored soul" [DW, 74].
13
And it includes our
"experienced-based confidence in Gods loving care," which Jesus communicates to us through
his resurrection presence in our lives and his teaching
14
and which frees us to love God and
neighbor [DW, 70].
In addition to these overarching life attitudes, Willard points us to specific
spiritual disciplines.
15
When he considers the transformation of our thought life, for example,
Willard speaks of certain "tried-and-true disciplines which we can use to aid in the
transformation of our thought life toward the mind of Christ" [DW, 112] These disciplines are
activities that are under our power and that enable us to do what we cannot do by direct
effort. We cannot transform our ideas and images, or even the information we have or
our thought processes, into Christlikeness by direct effort. But we can do things adopt
certain practices - that, indirectly, will increasingly have that effect [DW, 113].
With regard to the transformation of our thought lives, this most obviously includes the
discipline of meditation on Scripture, which enables us to "draw certain key portions of Scripture
13
Ibid., 74.
14
Willard gives a practical example of how to foster such confidence in Gods loving
care through a daily practice of committing his day to the Lord through meditatively praying
through the Lords Prayer and the 23
rd
Psalm. [DW, 70.]
15
See Willards 1988 work The Spirit of the Disciplines. The fact that Willard has written
so extensively on the topic of spiritual disciplines clearly explains why his treatment of this issue
here, while significant, is not very extensive.