Habits of Grace

A series of regular practices we pursue in community. Each habit is designed to draw you closer to God, through various means of grace.

The Word

The Word is the Bible - it is the primary way God reveals himself to us. Through it we know who God is, who we are, and how to trust in God in all of life.

Why?
  • Gives you rest in God’s presence and freedom from the slavery to 
 ‘do more’
  • Reminds you that God is in control
  • Helps you to trust in the finished work of Jesus, not in what you can accomplish
  • Your soul is restored and healed outside of the ‘hurry’
Practice
  • Plan to engage with the Bible on a consistent basis (Individually and with others)
  • Engage in various ways; simply reading, study, memorisation, meditation, visual, audio
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive the Word (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
  • Prioritise it (scripture before screens)
Application
  1. Get into groups of 2-3, preferably men with men and women with women.
  2. Within your groups each of you choose a 5 minute window in your day that is most predictable. (Often 5 minutes after waking or before bed are the most predictable times.)
  3. Decide on a book of the Bible you will read. Can be the same or different for each person. Default suggestion: Philippians
  4. Each day over the next week, read the Bible for 5 minutes and text the group 1 verse from your reading that day.
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts

“Jesus in all the Bible” is a 3-4 minute daily devotional podcast that walks through the bible and shows you how all scripture points to Jesus.

Jesus in all the Bible Podcast
Books

Chapters 1-3 of How to Read the Bible for All it’s Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart

How to Read the Bible for All it’s Worth

Sabbath

Sabbath is a day set aside to cease from your work, rest from your burdens, celebrate life and delight in God’s unhurried presence. It is God’s good gift of repetitive and regular rest given for your flourishing.

Why?
  • Gives you rest in God’s presence and freedom from the slavery to ‘do more’
  • Reminds you that God is in control
  • Helps you to trust in the finished work of Jesus, not in what you can accomplish
  • Your soul is restored and healed outside of the ‘hurry’
Practice
  • Prepare well. When, how and with whom?
  • What practices should you engage in to connect with God’s unhurried presence?
  • What practices must you cease from to help you connect with God’s unhurried presence?
Application
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts
Books
Websites

Service

Service is seeking to do good to everyone, especially to other believers. (Galatians 6:10, Philippians 2). Using our varied gifts to minister to others before ourselves, shaped by a desire to serve rather than be served.

Why?
  • Allows you to identify with and become more like Jesus who took on the nature of a servant
  • Is obeying the glorious calling of all who follow Christ
  • Comes with the promise of heavenly reward and honour
  • Is an overflow of what Christ has done in your life
Practice

As you walk with Jesus, you begin to serve others because you are free from sin and loved by God. Service also calls for humility - an intentional emptying of yourself, and a surrender that allows God to use your life however He sees fit.

Application
Resources
Podcasts
Listen Here
Websites

Blessing

Blessing is to want what God wants for someone, to see them as God sees them, and to act towards them in a manner that is congruent with that.

Why?
  • Gives strength and courage to those who may want to give up
  • Lets others know they are visible, appreciated and unconditionally loved by God
  • Spreads the delight and goodness of God
  • Builds up the body of Christ
  • Changes your perspective of others as you invest in seeing them as God sees them
Practice
  • Understand that you are blessed and are called to bless others
  • Ask God to give you His heart for others
  • Plan to be a blessing, and then assume the Holy Spirit will help you to do it
  • Bless with your words, your presence, your time or through practical help
Application
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts
Books
Websites

Community

Community is joining with people who share a common Saviour and a common mission in Christ. Jesus brought us into God’s family and united us to all the other believers in His body, the church.

Why?
  • Become more known and loved as you seek to know and love others
  • Can encourage one another towards love and good deeds and carry each others burdens
  • Experience the breadth of God’s gifts and goodness through others
  • See different facets of who God is, reflected in different members of the community
Practice
  • Corporate Gathering:  the weekly meeting of all believers in a local church body
  • Unity: exalting Jesus’ will and ways above differences with other believers
  • Small Groups: Jesus followers being known, loved, encouraged and challenged to live for Jesus
  • Spiritual Friendship: Walking closely with another believer who you can openly share about your walk with God and receive support, encouragement, prayer.
Application
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts
Books
Websites

Fasting

Community is joining with people who share a common Saviour and a common mission in Christ. Jesus brought us into God’s family and united us to all the other believers in His body, the church.

Why?
  • Exposes emptiness and reorientates you to embrace your need for God’s presence
  • Reminds you to turn to Jesus, who alone can satisfy
  • Is a means of partnering with God for break through
Practice
  • Start small, and plan well
  • When will you fast? What will you fast from (eg.food/entertainment/pleasure/comfort)?
  • Why are you fasting? Is someone joining you?
  • Make time to embrace (and not avoid) the emptiness
  • Have Bible, notebook and water bottle ready
Application
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts

Check out the first episode on fasting from The Rule of Life Podcast
Fasting 03 To Amplify Our Prayers Top tip: you will hear from Nasʼ
father in this episode

Books

Chapters 1115 of Godʼs Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis

Websites

Worship

Worship is to honour and adore the Trinity as the supreme treasure of life. All of life is worship, but it is only when we worship God with our lives that our world is ordered rightly.

Why?
  • Fulfilling your God-given purpose and longing to adore and praise your Creator
  • Drawing near to God and bringing him joy
  • As you taste and see that God is 
 good, your heart desires are oriented towards him
  • Keeping company with Jesus in all circumstances
Practice

True worship begins by beholding God, and exalting who He is with your whole life. It can include; responding to God’s truth with loving obedience, regularly engaging with a worshiping community, seeking first the kingdom of God, keeping secondary things second.

Application
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts

Check out “WOR/THˮ Podcast. This week listen to Season 1 Episode 2
Comfort vs Confrontation

Books

Read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Meditations on Psalms

Websites

Generosity

Generosity is the willingness to freely and abundantly give of your resources for God’s purposes. It is orientating your heart to be like Christ’s - “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20v35)

Why?
  • Grows your trust in God’s provision in your life
  • An earthly investment in an eternal inheritance
  • Practically demonstrates that nothing you have is your own, everything belongs to the Lord and comes from Him
  • A means of imitating Christ who poured Himself out for you completely
Practice
  • Pray that your desire for God, will displace your desire for temporary material things, and free you to use your possessions and time for His glory
  • Financial generosity can be demonstrated by giving, tithing, supporting missionaries, meeting needs, supporting charities, and being generous to others
Application
Testimonials
Resources
Podcasts

Check out Intro to Nehemiah on the Spoken Gospel Podcast.

Books

If you would like to learn more about “spiritual financial advisors” and
the potential for practical gospel living, consider reading The Barefoot
Disciple: Five Money Habits For Modern Disciples by Yoel Frank. This
is available in print or audiobook.

Websites

Prayer

Prayer is simply communication with God. Through it we are able to pour out all of our hearts in a divine dialogue.

Why?
  • Grows you in relationship with God and in dependence on Him
  • Exercises your faith and leads to a heart of gratitude
  • Brings you into agreement with God and His will for you and the world
  • Builds your intimacy with God as He hears and answers your prayers
Practice
  • Jesus gave us a model for prayer in Matthew 6:9-13
  • If in doubt, pray the scriptures, and build from there
  • Pray in secret and pray with others
  • A growing dialogue with God may take many forms such as adoration, petition, lament, supplication, confession, thanksgiving, declaration
Application
Resources
Podcasts
Books
Websites

Current Teaching Series:

Knowing Jesus
February - April 2025

Who is Jesus to you? Lord and saviour? Prophet? Teacher? Or the greatest con man who ever lived? While who Jesus is has always been a point of debate, one thing every historian agrees on is that Jesus was a real, living, breathing human being. This series explores and reveals the incredible realities of Jesus through the lens of Colossians.