The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together

by Jared C. Wilson

“Believing God has a plan for me even when I’m afraid he doesn’t.”

“Trusting that God is doing something for my good even though my life has always been terrible up till now.”

“Following Jesus even though my feelings speak more loudly.”

We have to speak to it rightly, like the psalmist—“Hey, soul, what’s going on with you? Why are you messed up today?”2

In the end, as in the beginning, it is not our good intentions or even our good deeds that will get us out of the muck of ourselves. It is God’s rescuing hand. It is his enduring announcement over us messed-up creatures, “I love you,” that changes everything.

The soul is a complicated thing. The soul is a wormhole, multidimensional, polyhedral. We have outer space inside of us. And we think we can manage this?

This is why, as odd as it sounds, making your entire Christian life about trying to look like a good Christian is a great way to become a terrible Christian. Or at least a weak and defeated one.

And so it turns out that the direct route to God-honoring behavior is born not of good behavior but of good beholding.

Sometimes people are so busy trying to do great things for God they forget to look at his glory and therefore never quite behold it.

The more we dwell in Scripture, developing a greater taste and feel for it, the less sweet and less comforting the things of the world will taste and feel.

The wonderful thing about the Bible is that even as we develop our ability to find our way around in it, it never gets old or stale.

The most powerful “catalyst” for moving people through stages of spiritual growth, the survey revealed, was reading and reflection on Scripture.6

The point of the Christian life is not self-improvement or more Bible knowledge but Christlikeness.

If you are simply reading the Word to check something off your religious duty list, to get some brownie points with the big man upstairs, to study for your next Bible exam, or to advertise your discipleship on Instagram, you will not get out of it all that you should.

None of us is better than Jesus. So if Jesus’s intentional prayer involved withdrawal to deserted places, and he did so often, how awesome do we think we are that we don’t have to follow suit?

if prayer is not just another thing for the checklist but rather the thing that makes the checklist doable, and if we looked not for “results” in prayer but relationship, we might find it more appealing.

if there is a God of the universe (and there is), and this God of the universe loved you and wanted to be in relationship with you (and he does), wouldn’t it be stupid not to talk to him?

if the God of the universe is in control of our days and loves us enough to provide comfort and power for those who seek him, wouldn’t prayer...

Perhaps the best way to cultivate a feeling for Scripture is experiencing bold preaching and devoted community groups. As we study Scripture together, we begin to interpret it through a communal lens and ponder its implications not just for our individual life but for our church.

How can we work toward our leaders’ joy and not their anxiety? It’s no advantage to us to be a nagging pain to our pastors. They will have to give an account for how they pastored us. And we’ll have to give an account for how well we presented ourselves to be pastored.

The Spirit produces more and more patience in our hearts, because as we grow in faith we also grow in our realization of our sin. We see more of our inadequacy as we mature in Jesus, not less.

The more we experience the kindness of God in and through our own repentance, the more kindness we find to afford others.

To be unkind to others, in fact, is to disbelieve God’s kindness and to spit on it. For a follower of Jesus to be unkind to others is to depict Jesus as unkind. But indeed, because the almighty God has provided us with his inexhaustible kindness, we find an ever-deepening well of kindness for others.

What is it that you wouldn’t give up for Jesus? You’d give up everything in the world but this one thing. Well, that’s what you worship.

“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.”