Beloved,
On Sunday we began a new Sunday school class titled Seeking Him: Liturgical Rhythms for a Worshipful Life and Family. We spent a good part of our first lesson wrestling with the distinction between commanding and commending. I was arguing that nowhere in Scripture are we explicitly commanded to have a daily time set apart for private or family worship, but given the scriptural commands to have worshipful lives and families, the daily rhythms of private and family worship are strongly commended. I drew the analogy that no where in Scripture am I commanded to set apart time each day to spend with my wife, but given the scriptural command to love her (Eph. 5:25), the daily rhythm of focused time together is strongly commended.
In my marriage, the norm is evening couch time with Tessa to talk and pray before going to bed. It is a consistent rhythm. But at least one night a week I am out for meetings (typically Wednesdays), and couch time doesn’t happen. Though Tessa and I often make up for it by sitting at the table together the next morning over cups of coffee, we aren’t slaves to our habits. We don’t beat ourselves up when we are providentially unable to carry them out, for we recognize that life, especially with three young boys and pastoral ministry, is never as clean-cut as one wishes it could be. Furthermore, we recognize that habits such as this are means to an end, not ends in themselves. And yet, it is just because couch talk and prayer is an important means to the end of being the husband and wife God commands us to be that we seek to be as consistent as possible in this habit. And here is the neat thing–because we love each other, we cherish this habit (though sometimes it is hard to keep our eyes open because we are so tired at this point in the day!).
God commands us to give ourselves to the disciplines of grace, predominately Bible intake and prayer. In fact, we are commanded to grapple with God’s word and to pray continuously.
- “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16). That is a present imperative, indicating the call to an ongoing and continuous action. It makes sense since the psalmist commends to us a life of meditation upon God’s word “day and night” (Ps. 1:2).
- “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Again, we have a present imperative, but just in case we didn’t get the call to continuous prayer, it is modified by an adverb which literally means “without omission.” It makes sense when we consider that apart from Christ we can do nothing and thus need to continuously draw from His life-giving power by faith (Jn. 15:1-7, see especially v. 7).
We are not commanded to have a set apart time in the word and prayer each day, but we are commanded to have daily lives saturated in the word and prayer. Personally, that will not happen in my life without liturgical rhythms. I won’t walk in continual prayer if I don’t cultivate a prayerful heart in the secret place. I won’t have the word in my mind and heart throughout the day if I’m not reading and meditating upon it with focused intentionality in the early morning hours. So a daily time of private worship might not be commanded, but it is strongly commended if you and I are going to fulfill God’s commands to have the riches of God’s word continuously abiding in us and to pray continuously throughout our days.
No, we mustn’t become slaves to these habits, and there will be times when we are providentially hindered from carrying them out. But without establishing normal rhythms of worship, it is hard to see how our souls can be primed to live unto God at all times and in all places.
This Sunday we are going to begin looking at common hindrances to establishing such liturgical rhythms, spending at least three weeks unpacking the most prominent reasons why Christians struggle to be consistent in the disciplined pursuit of God. I’m eager to wrestle with these things together to the end of us growing more Godward and Godlike.
See you Sunday!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick