Practicing the Way, Part Two: Build a Rhythm That Serves Faithfulness
A useful routine makes room to follow Jesus. Keep Scripture central, fit the practices to real responsibilities, and let learning reach service and gospel conversations.
#327 — Practicing the Way (Pt. 2)
Jun 17, 2024
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Give the desire a place
We can sincerely want to become more like Jesus while never giving that desire a place in the day. A busy routine already knows where our time will go. Patience and thoughtful service need more than our hope that tomorrow will somehow be different.
John Mark Comer's Practicing the Way offers suggestions for arranging practices that support discipleship. A personal routine can help, but it must stay beneath Scripture. Try an idea because it helps you receive and obey Christ's teaching, while remaining willing to correct it. Its value depends on whether it helps us receive Christ's instruction and live it faithfully. A schedule can't make us holy by itself. It can make room for the learning, prayer, relationships, and obedient action that our stated priorities require.
Let the support serve the growth
You don't need to predict every result before making a useful start. You can decide to study a Gospel carefully or make time for someone lonely without knowing everything that will come from it. Begin with conduct whose good purpose is already clear.
A trellis supports a plant without supplying its life. In a similar way, a chosen pattern can support study, prayer, and relationships without becoming the source of our faithfulness. Keep the arrangement useful enough to serve the people and duties you actually have. It isn't a rule you have authority to impose on everyone else. Work, health, caregiving, and opportunity differ. Choose a structure that fits those realities and can be reviewed honestly when circumstances change. A useful first review is to observe the routine you already have. When do messages receive attention, when do meals and work happen, and where does unplanned time usually go? You may discover that a small adjustment is more realistic than adding an entirely new schedule. Work with the day you actually live rather than an ideal day that rarely occurs.
Keep Scripture central
Second Timothy 3:14–17 describes Scripture teaching, correcting, and training us for righteous living. Give that instruction the central place in your routine. Preparing to pay attention is useful because there is something true we need to hear, not merely because quiet feels meaningful. We need more than an inspiring idea about Jesus. We need to learn what He and His apostles actually teach and allow that instruction to correct us.
James 1:22–25 warns against hearing without doing. The failure is in the unresponsive hearer, not a weakness in God's word. Ask what the passage means and then let it challenge a habit or duty you would otherwise leave unchanged. Read the passage in context, notice what it establishes, and distinguish the teaching from an application you have chosen. A study plan should help you understand and obey rather than merely collect material for defending conclusions you already hold. Ask what the text requires before deciding which habit will serve it.
Make room to attend
Luke 5:15–16 shows Jesus withdrawing to pray while demands were growing. A modest time away from messages and unnecessary noise may help us give better attention too. It needn't be an impressive retreat to create room for a careful reading or honest prayer. The example gives us reason to protect attention from constant demands. A short period free from messages and unnecessary noise may allow more thoughtful reading than a much longer period repeatedly interrupted.
Be careful about making a personal rest practice a command for every Christian. Colossians 2:16–17 addresses judgments about Sabbaths and other observances. We can protect needed rest without binding the old covenant Sabbath or an author's preferred arrangement on another household. Nor should solitude become an excuse to neglect people. The practical aim is suitable room for attention, not a religious identity built around an impressive retreat routine.
Bring the real concern to God
In Matthew 6:5–15, Jesus teaches prayer directed toward the Father rather than an audience. Bring the need you actually have, including gratitude and repentance. Prayer before study can help you admit the question; prayer afterwards can help you respond to what you've understood.
A journal may help your attention, but it doesn't measure the sincerity of your prayer. Nor does an unsettled morning leave you unable to seek God. Let the practice fit your circumstances while keeping the purpose close: turning honestly toward the Father for help. Let prayer remain honest when your day is unsettled. Someone whose caregiving leaves only brief opportunities can still seek God sincerely. The point is dependence and attention, not successful completion of an elaborate personal system.
Set something aside thoughtfully
Matthew 6:16–18 teaches about fasting without religious display. The point of abstaining isn't to collect praise for what we can endure. Setting aside an unnecessary habit can also make room for attention we've been promising but repeatedly giving away. A period away from an unnecessary screen habit, for example, may help you give undivided attention to study or conversation.
A break from technology isn't identical to the food fasting described in Scripture. It's a practical way of setting something aside. Choose responsibly, especially where health or another person's care is involved, and don't measure devotion by a restriction someone else may be unable to undertake. Health and other responsibilities matter. Choose an appropriate practice, seek qualified guidance where needed, and avoid making another person's circumstances a test of spirituality. The worthwhile question is what you can responsibly set aside so a genuine duty receives more attention.
Carry learning into shared life
Hebrews 10:24–25 asks us to consider one another and encourage love and good works. A study routine should prepare us for that shared life. We need people to care for, rather than merely an audience to hear how much we've learned. Private study shouldn't steadily move us away from the people we are learning to love. Fellowship is more than finding an audience for what we know; it includes receiving encouragement and attending to another person's needs.
First Peter 4:10–11 directs our gifts toward service that glorifies God through Christ. Ask what help is actually needed before filling a routine with activities. A modest, dependable contribution often serves better than a promise too large to keep alongside your existing duties. These personal applications don't establish new instructions about congregational funding, facilities, or organized programs. Keep those decisions under Scripture too. Let the plan help you fulfill actual responsibilities without claiming authority to create additional ones.
Leave room for gospel conversations
Colossians 4:5–6 connects wise conduct with gracious answers to particular people. Give attention to the questions someone is actually asking. A routine that leaves no room to listen may keep us busy preparing to help while passing the person who needs us. A useful rhythm should help you notice people, listen to their questions, and be ready to explain the gospel truthfully. Kindness matters, but kindness alone doesn't communicate everything a person needs to know about Christ and the response He calls for.
Choose a small arrangement you can put into practice and review. Give Scripture and prayer a real place, and notice one opportunity to encourage or help. Review what actually served the purpose rather than judging the whole effort by whether the timetable looked impressive. Keep what serves faithfulness and adjust what has become impractical. The purpose isn't to accomplish nine impressive activities each day. It is to let Christ's instruction increasingly shape your attention and conduct, so that what you learn becomes visible in love, service, and a readiness to help others follow Him. If an intended conversation doesn't happen, ask whether the plan was suitable and whether another opportunity would serve the person better. Don't turn a missed invitation into evidence that the whole rhythm has failed. Planning should increase responsible availability while leaving room for real people and events that can't be scheduled into a perfect pattern. Keep learning.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Which practice needs a clearer place in my actual week?
- 02Is my routine making me more attentive to God's word and other people?
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