Going Deeper

What Your Spiritual Disciplines are Missing: Dependency on God

• Justine Cheri Ordway

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0:00 | 1:10:35

We treat spiritual disciplines like a self-improvement checklist—read the Bible, pray, show up—and then wonder why it all feels like one more thing to manage. This episode digs into what's actually missing: not more willpower or a better routine, but dependency on God. When we reframe prayer and Scripture as lifelines rather than optional habits, everything changes.

In this episode:

  • Why treating spiritual disciplines as optional turns them into a to-do list
  • The difference between self-improvement and genuine spiritual growth
  • How inconsistency often signals a dependency problem, not a discipline problem
  • The armor of God (Ephesians 6) as a framework for relying on His strength
  • Esther as a model of dependency—prayer and fasting before facing the king


Key takeaways:

  • Spiritual disciplines aren't optional habits; they're the means of connecting with God
  • Dependency on God is the engine of real spiritual growth
  • Consistency flows from reliance, not the other way around

Timestamps:

  • 1:08 — Intro: what spiritual disciplines are missing
  • 3:57 — Treating spiritual disciplines as optional habits
  • 8:08 — Main thesis: disciplines as a means to know God, not an end
  • 11:02 — Inconsistency traced to a lack of dependence on God
  • 14:44 — Disciplines as lifelines and weapons of warfare
  • 17:27 — Ephesians 6 and the armor of God
  • 21:17 — The example of Esther
  • 28:10 — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace
  • 33:30 — Dependency #1: depending on God in the valley
  • 36:37 — Dependency #2: depending on God for sanctification
  • 38:36 — Naming a sin struggle and pursuing change
  • 41:27 — Dane Ortlund's Deeper on despairing of self and opening to the Spirit
  • 46:00 — Dependency #3: depending on God through faith-building experiences
  • 53:53 — Jesus: "the Son can do nothing of his own accord"
  • 58:12 — Jesus as deeply dependent on the Father
  • 59:10 — Psalm 119's "give me life," the vine and branches, life in God's Word
  • 65:32 — Recap of the three dependency categories
  • 70:22 — Closing CTAs and book update
  • 71:51 — Bonus: practical prayer and Bible reading tools
  • 76:02 — Final wrap-up