The Disciplines of Connecting to God
2 Peter 3:18
James Bryan Smith tells the story of Craig, a zoo architect, who took part in a course focusing on becoming like Christ through the practice of spiritual disciplines and began to notice some real changes in the way he behaved toward others. One day, he and business partner were flying back to the US from a business trip in Germany, when they got stuck in Atlanta. They were told that their flight would be delayed and 1 hour became 2 and 2 became 4 until it was announced all the flights had been cancelled. The anger level of the concourse rose precipitously. All of the passengers got in long lines to rebook their flights. Craig and his business partner watched as every person ahead of them spoke harshly to the woman behind the counter. When Craig got up to the counter, he said, “I’m not going to be mean to you.” She said softly, “Thank you.” He was rebooked on a flight the next day and after his business partner said, “Craig, I’ve known you for a long time. A year ago, you would have been enraged by what we went through today and you would have lit into that woman.” Craig said, “You know, you’re right. But I’ve changed. I am a person in whom Christ dwells and I live in the kingdom of a God who loves me and is caring for me. I’m frustrated but I’m still at peace. We’ll get home tomorrow.” His friend said in amazement, “I’m not sure what you’ve been eating or drinking but you’ve really changed.” And James Bryan Smith writes, “It was what Craig had been doing and thinking for the last year that brought about the change…. You can call these activities “spiritual disciplines but I prefer to call them soul training exercises….Athletes understand the necessity of training. They run and lift weights and practice over and over so they can perform naturally, easily and with strength in competition….when we engage in spiritual disciplines as soul training exercises, we are doing so to change how we live.” And it changes who we are.
In this series, we’re talking about “Connecting with God.” The Christian faith isn’t so much about what you believe as it is a personal relationship. The Proverbs writer puts it this way: Iron sharpens iron.” Who you spend time with changes who you are and how you live. Methodism is not so much about what you believe but how you practice the faith. John Wesley identified 5 practices for growing in our faith. He called them Means of Grace. He didn’t invent them. In fact, these are practices were handed down from both Judaism and the early church. But he considered them to be gifts from God because they help us connect to Jesus and grow our relationship to him, transform us into His likeness and be obedient to God. They enable us to make ourselves regularly available to God and to the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
John Wesley defined the means of grace as “outward signs, words or actions ordained by God,…to be….channels whereby He (God) might convey to men…grace.” He believed practicing the Means of Grace was essential to connecting to God, following Jesus and fulfilling the Great Commandment to “the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all of your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31). But here’s the catch. Unless you regularly practice the Means of Grace, you limit God in your life. God cannot give you what you do not put yourself in a position to receive. It’s kind of like a lamp in your living room that never gets plugged in. It may look good and you can turn the switch but there’s no power. You cannot take the next step in the faith journey without God’s grace empowering you.
Now some Christians may do one or two Means of Grace but not all five and the result is they receive some grace and some power but not all that’s available to them. The great saints of the faith who have made an incredible kingdom impact throughout the centuries were able to do so because they practiced all of the means of grace. There’s nothing strange or mystical about these but there is something very powerful: God will transform you so that you are increasingly living in His power, a power that is not your own and you will increasingly find yourself able to accomplish the kinds of things that only God’s power is able to accomplish. It will simply feel natural – like a part of you. Because when God is working in you and you are working in his power, you don’t have to make an effort to obey him – you’ll just find yourself doing it. In other words, it’s not just a part of who you are but it becomes who you are.
John Wesley identified two categories of the Means of Grace: works of piety (holiness) and works of mercy. Works of piety are how Christians grow and mature in their relationship with God. The works of mercy are how disciples live out their love for God in the world by loving their neighbors as themselves in acts of compassion and justice. The works of piety are prayer, worship and the Lord’s Supper, reading and hearing Scripture daily, mutual accountability and support in small groups (Christian conference), and fasting (or abstinence). Works of mercy is based on Matthew 25:40. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:40) They are the product of the works of piety. It’s important to understand that the two go hand in hand. They create a life of harmony and balance. For if we are paying attention to God in prayer, worship, and Scripture reading, we will be compelled to service in the world; loving those whom God loves as God loves them.
What does it take to practice the Means of Grace in your life? First, you have to take responsibility for your spiritual growth. God’s desire is for you to become holy, but you are the only one who is responsible for choosing the path to holiness. You are the only one responsible for the spiritual path you take. Nobody else is responsible for your spiritual growth. I’m not, AnnaKate isn’t, Janet Davis isn’t and the leaders of this church aren’t. Only you are responsible for where you are right now spiritually and only you can decide whether you want to pursue what God is calling you to. You’ve got take responsibility for your spiritual growth. Your relationship with God is like a marriage. It takes hard work, more than you ever expected. It takes dedication and discipline. You have to be willing to invest the energy to grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus. No one else can do it for you.
Second, put God first in your life. You can’t just make God a part of your life. He has to be your life. Nothing else is acceptable to Him. You have to make Him the center and have everything else revolve around it. God has to be in the middle of your life, not on the periphery. God has to be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of everything for you. Before you can have the full life God intended for you, God has to be the most important thing in your life and everything else is a distant second. Most people today believe in God, but they haven’t made God their life. You have to come to the place where you stop dating all the other gods of our culture, and instead give it all to Him. This is what life in Jesus is all about. It’s about making a commitment of all of yourself to Him and living it out with passionate abandon. The problem is that we are commitment phobic. We like the closeness of the relationship, but we want outs, we want options, and we want exceptions. You have to “make a commitment” to God to the exclusion of everything else in your life.
Third, you have to reprioritize and commit the time. Every relationship of any depth and significance takes time and energy. Those are our two most precious commodities today. We’re overcommitted and tired and as a result, we’re short on time. Relationships are not just about what you commit to or take, they’re also about what you give up. And that means if you’re going to make Jesus your life, something’s gotta give. You’ve got to reprioritize to make the time available for Him. Now spending time together in any relationship does not naturally bring intimacy but it’s impossible to be intimate without spending time together. And it’s not just quantity time meaning you have to do it every day, it also about quality time which means giving God your very best time of the day. For some of you, that’s late at night. For others of you, that’s early in the morning. Whatever it is, you give that time to God and practice the Means of Grace. This is much more than giving God your Sunday morning. Worship is one of the means of grace but it is only 1 of 5 means of grace. If this is the only time you read the Word of God and the only time you pray, then your relationship is not what it could be. If you really want to be close to God, you’ve got to spend quantity and quality time with Him.
Fourth, balance the Means of Grace with works of mercy. In other words, we have to love God and love our neighbor? If not, we become unbalanced kind of like this body builder. http://ecowellness.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/can-you-see-your-emotional-moral-body/ We may grow some of our spiritual muscles but not all of them. The problem is that if left on our own, we will gravitate toward the Means of Grace that come most easily for us or that suit our temperament or personality. For example, an introvert will naturally be drawn to private prayer, personal Bible study, and fasting and may neglect worship, being a part of a small group, and serving others. On the other hand, an extroverted person will naturally be drawn to those serving others but will neglect time alone with God in prayer and Scripture reading. Maintaining balance is essential for Christian formation and faithful discipleship. It is how we become whole in Christ. Just as we are called to attend to all the teachings of Jesus, so we are called to practice all of the means of grace and acts of mercy, and not just those that suit our temperament
Fifth, we must be accountable to others. All of us will be accountable to God for Jesus says, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken" Mt. 12:36 Paul writes, "For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat." In other words, each of us will give an account of himself to God so we want to live as faithfully and obediently as we can. (Rom. 14:10-12).). One way to do that is by being accountable to others. Being accountable helps me be more likely to live out my commitments. We’re accountable sometimes when we aren’t even aware. Chuck Swindoll tells how several years ago some of the men in his church recognized his car when he ran a red light. As a result, he was invited by them to meet them at a coffee shop for breakfast, or they said jokingly “face the media.” He arrived early with a big sign hanging from his neck which read, “Guilty as charged.” When every one had laughed at his sign, he turned it over and it read, “He who is without sin cast the first stone!” Now he says that every time he is tempted to run a light, the incident comes to haunt him and keeps him from putting the peddle to the metal. That’s one of the many benefits of accountability! When I know that I have to give an accounting of how I live my life and practice the Means of Grace, I am much more likely to do it.
Accountability is about inviting others into your spiritual journey to be an encourager, a source of wisdom and support and sometimes even a corrector. Not many of us are strong enough to push ourselves to get better. We need others to help us do that. That’s part of the purpose of the body of Christ. What if in order to be a better follower of Christ all of us chose to be accountable to someone? Voluntarily, we would give someone the right to ask me about my actions and my practice of the faith. This past week, I had a call on my cell during staff meeting. No message was left and no name came up but I returned the call anyway. It was RL Betheley’s church in Bossier. She was a former Associate Pastor here at Munholland. She told me she had misdialed but while I had her on the phone, I asked how much reading she was doing because in July she asked me and two other colleagues to hold her accountable to reading more. And after I asked, she said, “Thanks for asking.” Why? Because she knew she loved and supported and cared for in being held accountable for a commitment she had made in her life and ministry. This is why it is so important to bind ourselves in relationship with one another because together we will be stronger and together we can make each other better followers of Jesus Christ than if we stand alone. Amen.
