It’s Monday. Now What? Our Sunday gathering and fellowship is a blessing that stirs, equips and fortifies us for another week. Now it is back to, as Pastor Zad reminds us from time to time, “the church scattered.” Practically, what does “daily walking close to thee” mean for the believer? How do we take the instruction, excitement, and impact from our Corporate Worship and begin living it out? While the “Church Service” has ended, Monday morning doesn’t mean we are returning to “real life,” it means we are headed out into ministry areas. Our homes, our jobs, our trips to the store – we go out of the Sanctuary doors and continue life in the presence of God. What are some resources that can help us with walking in discipleship, daily worship and communion with God? For many, the week looks like “back to work”, “raising up littles in my home”, or “doctors visits and caring for my family.” Do you struggle with simply getting started? Prayerfully, this is a submission for disciples of Christ who struggle to drive a stake in the ground to enjoy the benefit of daily communion with God.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 – 1892), regarded as the “Prince of Preachers,” is famously quoted as saying, “visit many good books, but live in the Bible.” With that in mind, let’s look at a few practical ways we can begin growing in our discipleship, and resources to help us. For those who have attended Bethlehem for a while, some of these will sound familiar from our Wednesday Evening services.
Begin the Day with Intentional Prayer
Our God is a relational God, and He affords his adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ the opportunity to go to Him in prayer. We have the privilege to begin each day not with the task at hand, but with God Himself. Offer recognition that God is above all and in control. Offer your heart, your plans, your intentions, your praises, your petitions, your dependence and your desire to commune with Him.
Tozer, “The man who would truly know God must give time to Him. God is not just present when we feel Him; He is present because He said He would be.”
Psalm 16:8 (ESV) , “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”
Resources on “Prayer”
Practice Spiritual Disciplines
God is not part of our lives, He is the context of our entire lives.
R. Kent Hughes has a very poignant saying, “Discipline is the key to discipleship.” On Monday, and really all the days of the week that follow, discipleship is walking with Christ intentionally. This calls for a focused heart, a scripture saturated mind and a spirit that is willing to listen and learn.
Donald Whitney gives us a few disciplines to consider:
- Prayer (See Above)
- Time in the Word (Bible Intake)
- Know God through His Word
- Worship
- Glorify God in spirit and truth
- Evangelism
- Proclaiming Christ to others
- Serving
- Reflecting Christ’s service, humility and love by practice
- Stewardship
- Honoring God with resources and time
- Journaling
- Recording and remembering God’s work
- Fasting
- Deepening dependence and focus on God
- Silence and Solitude
- Listening, resting, and reflecting on God
- Learning
- Growing in the knowledge of the Holy
- Connect with Other Disciples
- Seek out discipling relationships with other believers
Are we going to get this exactly right every day? No, but it is better to be consistent instead of flawless. Whitney also encourages his readers to remember that these disciplines are tools to draw us into deeper communion with God, not substitutes for God. Disciplines without a love for God becomes legalism. As a quick note, prayerfully approach what some would call a “routine.” That word can often carry negative connotations, so let’s clarify. It was not too long ago that we studied Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Whitney encourages his readers to prayerfully put daily habits in place. Spiritually healthy habits and discipline are a mighty tool for daily communion with God. The caution is to keep ourselves from setting up a “checklist” to confirm our Christianity. Whitney says, “The goal is not doing the disciplines for the sake of the disciplines. The goal is godliness.”
“The difference between a discipline and a duty is the motivation of love and the presence of God.” -Whitney
Resources on Christian Discipline
Commune With God
“We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.” – Tozer
There’s not enough time and space to exhaust the glorious reality of daily communion with God. A few key aspects about communion with God are:
Our Union with Christ
This is the foundation of communion with God – that we are reconciled through the blood of Jesus. It is the Gospel that has shown us unmerited grace. John Owen states, “Union is the cause, communion the effect. We are united once for all, but communion must be cultivated daily.”
John 15:4 (ESV)
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
Fellowship with Your Father
By God’s Word, His Spirit and through prayer, we learn more of God and His character. We can know God truly by what He has seen fit to reveal to us about Himself. Knowing more of the grace and person of God creates sweet fellowship born out of recognition of our Holy God. God speaks by His Word and we respond in prayer and worship. This is our relationship with God – not simply a routine.
Psalm 1:2 (ESV)
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Tozer – “At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His presence.”
Confession and Repentance
Sin disrupts our communion with God, though it does not break it. We must continually repent to keep our hearts softened for fellowship with God.
John Owen: “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
1 John 1:9 (ESV)
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Obedience Rendered From Love
Communion with God will grow deeper as we walk in obedience to the commands of Christ. Obedience is “Love in Action.” This is how we are daily conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
John 14:23 (ESV)
“Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’”
Worship in Communion
Worship is the result and the means of communion – it is our response to being in the very presence of God!
Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)
“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
Resources for Communion with God
Preach the Gospel to Yourself
The world, our flesh and the enemy constantly offer appealing false gospels to us daily. To combat this, we need to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to ourselves daily. Our worth is not in our performance, possessions, popular image – or built on how we feel (pride, shame, self-reliant, fearful). Preaching the Gospel to ourselves combats lies with truth and grounds our identity in not what we do or how we feel, but in who Christ is and what He has accomplished.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote:
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”
Gospel truths to proclaim to yourself daily:
- God is Sovereign and Holy. (Isaiah 6:1–3)
- We are sinners saved by grace. (Romans 3:23–24)
- Jesus lived a righteous life for you, died for you, and was raised for your justification. (1 Corinthians 15:1–4)
- You are Justified and Adopted through Jesus. (Romans 5:1; Galatians 4:4–7)
- There is now no condemnation for you. (Romans 8:1)
- God is with you. (Romans 8:31–39)
Walking in Light of Discipleship and Communion with God
The call to follow Jesus is not a one time decision—it is a lifelong walk down a narrow path, growth by the power of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word and daily communion with God Himself. Through Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled to God by grace alone, and now we are called to walk with Him every step.
John Owen reminds us: “Friendship with God is the highest privilege of the gospel.”
A.W. Tozer challenges us: “The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, and the church is famishing for want of His presence.”
Donald Whitney exhorts us: “Discipline without direction is drudgery. But discipline with a goal—godliness—is life-giving.”
So be encouraged – the path of discipleship is not easy, but we do not walk alone. You walk it with The Savior who leads you, The Holy Spirit who gives you power, and The Father who delights in you because of His Son, and your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let us be those who not only hear the Word but are doers of the Word and live it. Who not only gather on Sundays for worship, but worship through the week. Who not only profess Christ but pursue Him—fervently, joyfully, and faithfully.