Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines

by David Mathis

we must remember God has said it is not good for us to be alone (Gen. 2:18).

Corporate worship demands that we discipline ourselves to respond, and not only pursue God on our own terms. It is an opportunity

to embrace being led, and not always taking the lead.

The secret of joy in corporate worship is not only self-forgetfulness—or to put it positively, preoccupation with Jesus and his glory—but also the happy awareness that we are not alone in having our souls satisfied in him.

There are times to interact with our Groom, and times for us to speak at length in prayer and in song. But there are also times for us to sit and listen quietly and intently. When we put ourselves under the preaching of God’s word, it is one of the precious few moments in life today when we close our mouths and resist the temptation to respond right away, and focus our energy and attention to hearing with faith.

What if you came to worship next time not looking merely to hear some preacher, but to encounter Jesus?

The key principles of the means of grace are Jesus’s voice (word), his ear (prayer), and his body (church). The various disciplines and practices, then—our habits of grace—are ways of hearing him (his word), and responding (in prayer) to him, in the context of his people (the church).

As the Westminster Confession of Faith states, the Table, received in faith, is for our “spiritual nourishment and growth.”4 It not only strengthens our union with Jesus, but also our communion with fellow believers in Christ. As we come together to the Supper to feed spiritually on Christ (John 6:53–58), he draws us closer not only to himself, but also to others in the body (1 Cor. 10:17).

“We eat only little bits of bread and drink little cups of wine,” says John Frame, “for we know that our fellowship with Christ in this life cannot begin to compare with the glory that awaits us in him.”5

But not only does going deep with Jesus soon lead us to reach out to others, but also reaching out leads us deeper with him. In other words, getting on board with Jesus’s mission to disciple the nations may be the very thing he uses to push through your spiritual lethargy and jump-start your stalled sanctification.

Disciplemaking is the process in which a maturing believer invests himself, for a particular period of time, in one or just a few younger believers, in order to help their growth in the faith—including helping them also to invest in others who will invest in others.

To get more specific, disciplemaking requires that we die to selfishness—selfishness with our time and with our space. To get even more specific, it means dying to much of our precious privacy. Most of us do life alone so much more than is necessary. But in disciplemaking, we ask, How can we live the Christian life together? How can I give this younger Christian access to my real life, not some triumphal facade I put on once a week? It marks the death to much of our privacy. We bring that one or few in whom we are investing into the process and mess of our sanctification as we enter into theirs.

Disciplemaking is often messy, difficult work. You will see your weaknesses and failures and inadequacies like never before, and with God’s help, it will teach you all the more to lean on Jesus. Good disciplers must learn, in reliance on the Spirit, how to deal well with failure. And the Christian way to deal well with failure is take it to the cross.

Generosity is one of the great evidences of truly being a Christian. Not only is it Jesus himself who speaks most often, and warns us more severely, about the danger of greed, but he is also the one who so strongly appeals to our joy and says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).