11/09/2025
Do we have routine habits of faith? Are we made proficient in our faith by setting aside certain times each day to regularly read, pray, or just contemplate God, and Jesus? If not, and we are dependent on random thoughts to guide us and going to church once or twice a week to mature our faith, then we are missing out on a wonderful growing relationship with Jesus and the full power of God in our lives.
“For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
Colossians 1:29 ESV
I come from a family of farmers, and if that taught me anything it taught me about routines. I learned that you rose each day before the sun, prayed before your feet hit the floor, and while the wood stove heated up for breakfast you went to the barn with a pail and a stool and milked the cow. Then, you would bring that milk into the kitchen where some of it would be used for breakfast, some was poured into the churn on the back porch, and a little was set aside for later uses in the day. Then with the milk safely set aside you went back to the barn and fed the chickens, robbed their nests of the eggs that would be used over the coming days, and slopped the hogs. These are just a few examples of the routine things that farmers do every day like clockwork, all before the prayer that thanked God for the breakfast meal they were about to eat. This is the routine and the liturgy of a farmer’s morning life that insured them that all the chores were done, and God thanked. And these are only the things I can remember from a wonderful boyhood as my grandmother took my hand and let me listen to her wisdom and prayers as I walked and prayed through them with her.
We understand the Liturgy of our church, we greet it like an old friend, and find comfort in the fact that it keeps us from forgetting any interaction we should have with God during services, but do we have a Liturgy for our Daily lives outside of church? Do we carry the idea of having routine habits of worship in church life forward into our everyday lives as Christians? The Apostle Paul talked about being a Pastor, and in so doing he spoke of helping others mature in Christ. Do we have evidence and instruments of this maturation in us as we go through our days and live out our lives of faith?
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
Colossians 1:28 ESV
As a young Christian I used to pray when I thought about it, went to church when it was convenient, didn’t think about God unless I needed something, and avoided any situation in which I might be convicted by my actions. Do these things sound familiar to you? How about promising yourself that you would read the Bible tomorrow, or how about hearing the Lord’s voice and convincing yourself that it was only your imagination? These actions come as the result of placing your will and most of your life’s activities before God. These are the behaviors of a Christian infant, and an immaturity of faith.
Then one day I realized how little I was actually thinking, praying, and dedicating myself to Jesus and God. It happened when I saw my life for what it was... lacking and unfulfilled. You notice that I didn’t use the word unsuccessful but instead used “unfulfilled.” Success is easy to identify and work towards but the feeling that your life really matters is much harder to come to grips with. I was successful enough; I had a good job, a good family, my health was alright, I believed in God and Jesus Christ, I gave to charity, and yet there was something missing. What was it? Why was I feeling this way?
So, as I searched, I began to pray more intensely; telling God about where I was in life and what I was feeling. It was then that the Lord led me into a more mature faith, and a closer walk with Him; it came as the result of a very specific conviction when He asked me... “Do you really know me? Why have you ignored me?” To which I responded that I did believe, and that no, I really wasn’t ignoring Him... I had just been too busy!
Looking back on that time I realize that those words of denial were the words of a child.
God’s response was not one of anger, but a challenge. He asked that I set aside a few more minutes each morning for prayer; not a rushed couple of words, but a good talk. So, I did, and a couple of sentences in prayer became a few more, and a few more, until I was telling God all about my day, and the things that were happening to me. Then one morning when I thought about how wonderful this was, God asked me, “Can I talk now?” And my one-way prayers that had been a monolog suddenly became a conversation.
This was the beginning of my life’s liturgy. It took a lesson I knew from childhood on my grandfather’s farm and applied it to my life of faith. I developed habits and routines that actively engaged God and Jesus in my daily tasks and every happening in my life. My prayer times were expanded to include reading scripture, and then writing, as we talked constantly throughout the day. I had a certain chair that became a refuge to me, and habits of faith that worked powerfully in me.
I was maturing in faith, and that feeling of being incomplete had vanished.
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”
Colossians 2:9-10 KJV
Liturgy isn’t just for church! Our lives should be steeped in it... the liturgy of a life of worship and faith should fill every nook and cranny of our lives. If we begin down this road of habitual worship, routine conversations with the divine, and of molding our faith into an everyday liturgy, then we will undoubtedly mature in our faith and relationship with God. Scriptures that say things like “pray without ceasing” will cease to be so daunting, and the emptiness that we once tried to fill with more work, or good deeds, will suddenly be full to the brim with God’s presence and His will for us.
“Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 KJV
Do you see the value in developing a personal liturgy? Can you set aside a few more minutes each day for prayer? Can you begin to develop other liturgical practices that will further define and mature your life in God, and Jesus Christ?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for my mornings and rising to find you waiting there for me. Thank you for all of the miles we have walked together as we talked about the liturgies that you have instituted in my life. I thank you for the comfort of my prayer chair, and the constant conversations we have in my car. I thank you for the prayer rock I received from a friend, and how each time my hand touches it in my pocket I trace the cross etched into it and renew my prayers. I thank you Father for the small vial of oil that you asked me to carry and all those who I have anointed, or who have asked me to anoint them as I prayed for them. I thank you Father for the passages of scripture you reveal to me as I read each day, and the words you ask me to write. I guess Father, that I am thanking you for all the routine things in my life that I have captured in my heart and made prisoner to my faith, and for your filling the void that once existed within me with your presence. Thank you for my Christian maturity, and the intimate relationship that each moment of Daily Liturgy has helped me perfect with you. Praised be your name Father, for you are my life, my eternity, and my all in all.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
“but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 ESV
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes