Episode #243 Want More of God’s Grace? It Starts with Surrender – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friends. It's Jen. I hope you're ready to receive more of God's grace for you today, because that's what we're talking about in today's episode.

We're exploring the concept of spiritual disciplines, and I know for a lot of us, me included, that's not a really exciting term to be thinking about. I tend to think of disciplines as hard work and corrective, and sometimes even as punishment. But the spiritual disciplines are actually a means of walking in more freedom, and we can learn to delight in them and then experience more delight as we walk in them.

I'm going to be sharing from Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. And it's so rich with beautiful, powerful insight. He says the spiritual disciplines are God's means of grace by which we are enabled to bring our little individualized power pack, we call the human body and place it before God as a living sacrifice.

That's it. That's the role of spiritual discipline.

Now, he's referencing here Romans 12:1, which says,

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1 ESV)

And for fun, I also want to read it in the message. It says,

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” (Romans 12:1 MSG)

Isn't that freeing and fun to think about?

Richard goes on to talk about how God then steps in to our small offerings and produces in us graces and virtues that we could hardly imagine.

He says the spiritual disciplines are the means that God uses to build in us an inner person that is characterized by peace and joy and freedom.

I want that. I want to be characterized by peace and joy and freedom. I'm guessing you do too.

He says that it's critical to understand that the spiritual disciplines themselves don't have moral rectitude or righteousness.

These practices don't earn us anything in the economy of God. Their only purpose is to place us before God. That's all. And he says even these actions themselves are inspired by the “prevenient grace of God,” which I had to look up and that means it comes before in time and order.

So God's grace, already came first to inspire us to respond to His grace. So that when we do and we offer ourselves as an offering, He then steps in with more grace to produce in us what we are not capable of producing on our own.

God steps into our actions and over time and experience produces in us the formation of heart and mind and soul that we long for. Again, the results are all of grace.

Now, as a recovering perfectionist and former workaholic and type A achiever, this gives me oxygen.

I want to live this way. I am learning to live this way.
Our response to God is to offer ourselves as an act of worship and in his response he produces in us exquisite beauty that we could not achieve on our own.

And I want that, and I know you're here because you want that too. And so here's a question that we can take God today and ask him to keep guiding our steps as we talk with him more about it.

God, I'm here with my individualized power pack of my human body and my daily life. How can I offer them to you today as worship?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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