RHYTHMS OF GRACE: INTRO TO SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
In 2 Corinthians 12, the early church leader Paul wrote to the Christians living in the city of Corinth about having a painful struggle. He said that he had prayed for God to take it way 3 separate times. The response that he kept getting back from God was “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
I remember hearing that passage quoted over and over again and had read it numerous times myself. When I actually started thinking about what that meant I was confused. Why would the grace of being forgiven of his sin be enough to help Paul deal with ongoing pain and distress? My confusion came from the definition I had of "grace". I had boiled grace down to receiving the gift of forgiveness. While that is certainly one definition of grace, it's incomplete. A better definition of grace would be GOD'S GIFT OF EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT.
Forgiveness is absolutely an incredible gift that we have been given by God, but it is not the only gift he has given. In fact, he continues to give us gifts. So when Paul talks about God's grace being sufficient during his difficulties, a better way of saying it is "God will give you the exact gifts you need in the middle of whatever situation you're in." That might mean that God will give you the gifts of supernatural strength and endurance when you're hurting. It could mean that he will give you the gift of feeling his presence when you feel lonely or rejected. The grace you need could be the gift of wisdom when you're dealing with a major decision. Can you see why the answer of "my grace is sufficient for you" is such a great answer to the situations we will find ourselves in throughout our life?
I think it's safe to say that we all want those gifts of grace. We all want to receive wisdom to make Godly choices or to have a powerful personal experience of God's presence when we're feeling ostracized. The problem is, how do we put ourselves in a place where we can receive those gifts of grace? God wants to give them to us and clearly promises that he will. So why don't we experience those gifts more often? I believe it's because we have not learned how to stop, surrender our striving, and seek the giver of those gifts. I believe the Great Gift Giver himself wants to give us exactly what we need when we need it, but we are often too busy or trying to fix things our own way to be able to receive them from him.
This is where the spiritual disciplines come in. The spiritual disciplines, or as we will call them spiritual rhythms, have often been called A MEANS OF GRACE. They are certain actions that we can do to make ourselves more open and ready to receive whatever gift of grace God wants to give to us. Now I want to be very adamant here, the greatest gift we actually need is God himself. He is exactly what we need exactly when we need it. If we deeply desire him, then he also gladly gives us exactly what he knows we need. So when we engage in spiritual rhythms, we are not getting him to do our will, we are seeking him first, so that he can help us do his will in us and through us.
Spiritual rhythms are also a way that helps us to surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit so that he can give us the strength, wisdom, comfort, guidance, and other graces that we need. It has been compared to a sailor doing his part in getting the sails up on his sail boat. He is completely powerless to make the boat move on it's own, but unless he does his part, the wind will not have any affect. However, when we is faithful and the wind blows, the journey is possible.
Additionally, the spiritual disciplines are tools that the Holy Spirit uses to begin to transform us from the inside out. One of the most saddening things I experience as a pastor is people who seem to be running laps in their life. They're not running the good race and making progress in becoming like Jesus, they're doing what they've been doing for years and ending up in the same place they were the year before. They want to change, but they don't know how. The spiritual disciplines help us create space for God to reveal places in our hearts that are hurt, hard, or deceived and then speak to us the words of healing we need to hear. We'll talk more about how examining our stories goes hand in hand with finding healing and transformation through engaging in the spiritual disciplines.
So what are these disciplines? What are these rhythms that help us to experience the gifts of God's presence and his other graces? What are these practices that help us do our part so that the Holy Spirit can move us and empower us with wisdom, strength, peace, and other graces? There are far more than I'm going to be able to cover, as part of this series of posts I'm going to focus on Sabbath, Silence & Solitude, Lectio Divina, Prayer, and Gratitude. I will be doing a post on each of these rhythms. I will then give practical ways to engage in them as well as some things to be aware of when you are first starting out.
Before we move on to the rhythm of practicing Sabbath, I feel it's important to reinforce a few major ideas related to the spiritual disciplines.
The first is that our greatest desire should be to know and receive God himself. We do not do the spiritual disciplines to receive gifts, but to draw close to the giver of the gifts himself. Only when our deepest desire is for him, will his gifts be truly helpful.
Secondly, we don't engage in the disciplines to earn anything from God. We don't need to earn forgiveness or try to be better so that God will draw near to us or hear and answer our prayers more. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has already accomplished everything we need to be forgiven and be able to enter into the presence of God.
Third, the disciplines are not something we do to make ourselves better. We are utterly incapable of changing ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can truly transform us. The disciplines are a way of surrendering control so that He can do in us what we cannot do for ourselves.
The disciplines don't guarantee that God will show up exactly the how and when we want him to. We have a God that cannot be controlled and shows up in ways and times that we cannot predict. However, historically, we do know that God has a habit of using these disciplines to meet with his people. We must be prepared to engage in them because we love him, regardless of whether he shows up immediately or not.
The disciplines are meant to be practiced regularly if they are to be transformative over the long-haul. They should be like mile markers on our daily, monthly, and yearly spiritual journey. Starting the day with prayer, starting the week with Sabbath, ending the day with silence and reflection, etc.
These practices are meant to be a delight and not a duty or drudgery. We do these things because they help us become more aware of the presence, character, and goodness of our loving God. They help us know him more and become like him.
Lastly, we engage in these practices because the world needs more people who know the voice of Jesus and are engaged in loving this world and bringing the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We are formed by these practices for the sake of others.
My prayer is that as we explore some foundational spiritual rhythms, that we will experience the much needed "graces" that God wants to be able to gift to us in each and every situation that we face. Ultimately, as we choose to spend time with the loving community of the Trinity, we will experience true transformation and begin looking more like Jesus both inside and out. In our next post we will discuss the rhythm of observing Sabbath.