Heart Practices – Zoe Devotional #5

by Morgan Stephens

Thanks for subscribing to these brief devotionals that are designed to take you deeper with our current series at Mosaic, called Zoe: Embracing the Abundant Life.

This week, allow me to introduce you to a thinker and writer on the spiritual life, Dr. Dave Ward. Dave is the executive pastor at Bethel World Outreach Center in Brentwood, Tennessee, taught at Indiana Wesleyan University for many years, is currently a professor of preaching at Asbury Theological Seminary, and is a personal friend.

In his book, Practicing the Preaching Life, his section on Christian practices is second-to-none. He writes:

“Though the means of grace can be called practices, they are not merely things humans do. Christian practices are places God invites us to be so that Spirit(ual) formation can be received as grace, not works. Practices do not need to turn the grace of God into a vending machine. 

Spirit(ual) practices are not merely levers and switches that automate the grace of God like grace dispensers. The Spirit of God is the primary agent in the spiritual formation of [His people]. 

The means of grace are merely practices Christians believe God has ordained to be loci of the Spirit’s presence, mercy and transformative work. 

We go to the Christian practices and wait for God to grace us in ways we anticipate but would not expect. Christian practices are places in which we feel called to abide, trusting God will meet us there.”

 

Dr. Ward goes on to list five claims of classic Christian theology about Christian practices, from both Reformed and Wesleyan traditions, and I encourage you to allow your heart to lean into these five beautiful statements:

1.) God promises to be graciously active through these practices.

2.) God’s promise to be active includes the promise to be present in formative Christian practices.

3.) Practices are then not primarily doings but dwellings where we live in anticipation of God’s presence.

4.) Christian practices are interconnected and independent (i.e. prayer and fasting can stand alone, but put together, they can amplify the other).

5.) Christians’ faithful participation in Christian practices is characterized by receptivity and responsiveness to God’s active presence.

So today, as you go to God, and as you potentially fast along with Mosaic Church’s staff, would you remember that God has promised to be graciously active through these practices?

Would you remember that we go to God in these spaces trusting that God will meet us there?

And would you open yourself and your heart to receiving something from God that you do not expect today?

A prayer to pray:

Heavenly Father, I come to you today, trusting you to meet me in an unexpected way, because you are faithful to your word to draw near to me as I draw near to you. Help me to live in anticipation of your dwelling in my life, in Jesus’ name, Amen.