Gary over at Meditations on Metaphysics wrote an excellent paper about spiritual disciplines. In his paper he answers the question: “What is the true nature of biblical self-discipline?” You will find he correctly demonstrates that preforming certain activities does not make you Godly, but being Godly pushes you to preform certain activities.
The first part of the paper has been posted, it is called Outward Signs of Inward Godliness – Part 1. He plans on putting the paper up in four installments, I highly recommend reading this paper. It is a well needed discussion on an subject that has been misused and abused throughout the centuries.