"There is a grace to be discovered in daily obligation through the cultivation of habits that open us to God's work in our lives..."
This sentence stood out to me when I read it in an essay called "The Grace of Daily Obligation" by Gregory Jones. The daily obligations that Jones talks about (time in the Word, time with church fellowship, etc.) are not “just rules”… they are divine privileges that we get to partake in. If we choose to do so, it opens up avenues for God to work in mighty ways in our lives – and the more often we do it, the more it becomes a lifestyle versus just a habit. I noticed the word “cultivation”… when you cultivate a garden, it takes time, patience and dedicated hard work – and I believe that the same can be applied to our daily practices of staying in touch with God. Spending time in the Word, for example, takes discipline, and I know well that it takes a LOT of effort to “fit it in” to our daily schedules.
I remember going to Worldview Academy, a Leadership and Apologetics training camp, when I was about 14 or 15 years old. One of the leaders of the camp had dinner with my small group, and we were having a discussion about spending time in the Word. When he declared that we don’t have to read the Bible, I nearly fell out of my chair – WHAT? What kind of camp did I come to? He let us think about it for a moment and then followed up his statement with this: “No, you don’t have to read the Word. You get to.”
That’s the grace of daily obligation… daily habits that become a lifestyle of listening to God open us up to the work of God. You aren’t obligated to read the Word, you are privileged to be able to read the very words of God in your very own language… you are privileged to spend one-on-one time with the Creator of the Universe… you are privileged to be an adopted son or daughter of the King and are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
In accordance with the title of my blog... God is AWAKENING in me a desire to soak in the Word and to open up its pages with new eyes and a new heart.
