Life is full of seasons. And while spiritual disciplines are what tend to sustain intimacy with God through change, there are some seasons of life that wreck our rhythms of Bible reading, prayer, meditation, fasting, you name it. Personally, I am in one of those seasons right now. I’m trying to piece my once-ordered life back together. As I write this, my second child is six months old and I am navigating life as a father of two, where sleep is slowly increasing but exhaustion still seems chronic. That said, many of my disciplines have changed—if not disappeared entirely—from my daily rhythms.
So what are we to do when we find ourselves far from the habits that once felt natural? How do we navigate seasons like this? The steadfast love of God. The faithfulness of our heavenly Father. The union we have with our Savior. The gospel of Christ is a balm that brings an assurance of our eternal union with God when we feel far from him, and it will fuel a holy discontentment of our lack of intimacy that will empower small steps back into our disciplines.
The Purpose of Disciplines
Spiritual disciplines are those ordinary means God has ordained to experience nearness with him. Their purpose is not to be a measure of our holiness, they are meant to be the means by which we commune with God. When we determine our union with Christ by how often we are in the Word, how regularly we pray, or how often we’re sharing the faith, we are misusing the spiritual disciplines and looking for assurance in the wrong place. Don’t get me wrong, the spiritual disciplines are important, and we should engage with them regularly. But our relationship with God is determined by the finished work of Christ, not by our unfinished habits. It is not a works-based union. However, when we find assurance in our union with him, our disciplines become opportunities to rest in his finished work, rather than unfinished tasks we must complete before we can be at peace with God.
Therefore, in seasons when we find our disciplines disheveled because of our circumstance, we can still find assurance in the gospel of Christ, knowing that our standing before God—and his love for us—is not determined by the regularity of our disciplines but is secured for us by our Savior. When our disciplines are left unfinished, we find hope in the finished work of Christ.
The Faithfulness of God
Failing to maintain our disciplines may affect our momentary communion with God, but it does not alter our eternal union with him—that was secured for us through his faithfulness. The promise of Scripture is that if we are in Christ, then there is no condemnation for us. None. The work is done. His righteousness is ours. There is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). That is true for the one reading their Bible for an hour every day and for the one fighting to get through one psalm. God is faithful to this promise because he does not lie (Numbers 23:19), and even when we are unfaithful, he is faithful, for “he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13 ESV). This promise of no condemnation must be the bedrock of how we understand our relationship with God after we have placed faith in Christ. If we start from anywhere else, we will have a distorted view of God’s heart toward us.
We have to remember: Christ does not merely remove condemnation, he makes us one with God (John 17:20–23). Woah. Our salvation includes not only the forgiveness of sin but also fellowship with God. If we are in Christ, he has made us one with God. We have a personal intimacy with him. This is our relation to God: that he remains faithful regardless of if we feel this union to be true in the moment. If you are a Christian, this is true of you, even if you didn’t read your Bible today. I want us to read that again: Failing to maintain our disciplines may affect our momentary communion with God, but it does not alter our eternal union with Him. God is faithful to his promises. We must start here.
The Invitation to Start Again
So here we are: broken habits and a faithful God. What are we to do? Start again, in whatever ways we can. We do not leverage God’s faithfulness to remain in daily rhythms devoid of Bible reading, prayer, and evangelism. Instead, we see our unchanging union with Christ as an invitation to take small steps toward deeper intimacy and growth. What can we do today to meet God in his Word? Ten minutes? Five minutes? One psalm? Let that be enough. Rest in him. Where can we offer prayers? In the car? In the shower? At the grocery? Let that be enough. Rest in him. Then tomorrow, we meet him again in those places. Then again. Then again. It is called a discipline for a reason; it will take effort. But once we begin again, we will find ourselves wanting to make more room. And we will begin to experience our personal communion with God once again. Take small steps and trust that the Spirit will turn your discipline into delight.
Photo credit: Emilee Carpenter
Brad Young (MDiv, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a husband, a father of two young kids, and a pastor of a church in Cincinnati, OH. He cares about the Christlike formation of God's people and is set on helping others truly know God through developing right theology. He is an avid reader in search of thought-provoking books and writes for his own publication, A Practical Theology.
