six steps ✙

In his classic work The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges writes:

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Consider two radically different days in your own life. The first one is a good day spiritually for you. You get up promptly when your alarm goes off and have a refreshing and profitable quiet time as you read your Bible and pray. Your plans for the day generally fall into place, and you somehow sense the presence of God with you. Top it off, you unexpectedly have an opportunity to share the gospel with someone who is truly searching. As you talk with the person, you silently pray for the Holy Spirit to help you and to also work in your friend’s heart.

Would you enter those two witnessing opportunities with a different degree of confidence? Would you be less confident on the bad day than on the good day? Would you find it difficult to believe that God would bless you and use you in the midst of a rather bad spiritual day?

If you answered yes to those questions, you have lots of company among believers. I’ve described these two scenarios to a number of audiences and asked, “Would you respond differently?” Invariably, about 80 percent indicate that they would. They would be less confident of God’s blessing while sharing Christ at the end of a bad day than they would after a good one. Is such thinking justified? Does God work that way? The answer to both questions is no, because God’s blessing does not depend on our performance.

Why then do we think this way? It is because we do believe that God’s blessing on our lives is somehow conditioned upon our spiritual performance. If we’ve performed well and had a “good” day, we assume we are in a position for God to bless us. Oh, and we know God’s blessings come to us through Christ, but we also have this vague but very real notion that they are conditioned upon our behavior. A friend of mine used to think, “If I do certain things, then I can get God to come through for me.” […]

Here is an important spiritual principle that sums up:

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.

We could not take one step in the pursuit of holiness if God in his grace had not first delivered us from the dominion of sin and brought us into union with His risen son. Salvation is by grace and sanctification is by grace.

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Every once in a while, a worship song comes along that resonates with many believers, and wins many accolades from the Christian music “industry” . A hymn-like song that will likely endure for years to come, all because of its universal message and simple tune.

“How Can It Be?” is one of those songs.

It is sung by Lauren Daigle. She’s a fairly new artist on the music scene, having competed on American Idol yet finding her place in Christian contemporary music. She most recently won 3 Dove Awards (aka the Christian Grammy’s): New Artist of the Year, plus Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year (Category 13), and Song of the Year (Category 1) for “How Can It Be?”.

What more, is that Lauren’s album was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Christian Album” (though she unfortunately lost to Tobymac)!

“How Can It Be?” resonate with my heart, because it’s an anthem that declares our sinful depravity before God, and yet it also acknowledges the saving hand of God. We need more songs of confession like this; hymns that declare why our redemption is necessary. The melody is simple enough to sing corporately, yet the chorus and bridge really exult melodically in the power of God unto salvation. I heartily commend this song of worship to you & your church, especially if you’re a ministry leader!

Lyrics below | download the chords here. The video here is a tutorial with acoustic version starting at ~1m44s.

Verse 1 I am guilty
 Ashamed of what I've done, what I've become 
These hands are dirty 
I dare not lift them up 
To the Holy One

Chorus 1 You plead my cause, 
You right my wrongs
 You break my chains, You overcome
 You gave Your life
, To give me mine 
You say that I am free (yeah) 
(How can it be yeah)
 (How can it be) (yeah)

Verse 2 I've been hiding 
Afraid I've let You down, 
Inside I doubt
 That You could love me 
But in Your eyes 
There's only grace now

There is one more thing which is absolutely essential to growth in grace, and that is regular and habitual communion with the Lord Jesus. In saying this, let no one suppose for a minute that I am referring to the Lord’s Supper. I mean nothing of the kind. I mean that daily habit of communion between the believer and his Savior, which can only be carried on by faith, prayer and meditation. It is a habit, I fear, of which many believers know little. A man may be a believer and have his feet on the Rock — and yet live far below his privileges. It is possible to have “union” with Christ — and yet to have little if any “communion” with Him. But, for all that, there is such a thing. 

The names and offices of Christ, as laid down in Scripture, appear to me to show unmistakably, that this communion between the saint and his Savior is not mere imagination — but a real true thing. Between the Bridegroom — and His bride, between the Head — and His members, between the Physician — and His patients, between the Advocate — and His clients, between the Shepherd — and His sheep, between the Master — and His scholars — there is evidently implied a habit . . . of familiar communion, of daily application for things needed, of daily pouring out and unburdening our hearts and minds. 

Such a habit of dealing with Christ, is clearly something more than a vague general trust in the work that Christ did for sinners. It is getting close to Him and laying hold on Him with confidence — as a loving, personal Friend. This is what I mean by communion.