The relationship between grace and spiritual disciplines has perplexed Christians almost ever since there were Christians. Nearly two thousand years of church history have added numerous complicating factors, all the way from early-church Judaizers to medieval Catholics who flogged themselves to modern Reformed who delight in alcohol (and a wide range of denominational specifics in between).

David Mathis demonstrates that while God freely pours out His grace, we receive and benefit from it through the disciplines of “hearing God’s voice (His Word), having His ear (prayer), and belonging to His body (fellowship).” (15) If you have not already found that every Christian must develop these habits, this book will convince you.

Mathis’s aim is brevity and simplicity; his emphasis, pursuing joy in Christ rather than perfecting a list of behaviors.  While many studies outline a dozen or more spiritual disciplines that can be practiced individually, Habits of Grace focuses on three top priorities and includes church fellowship—one discipline that our autonomous culture is apt to neglect.  He also makes it clear that “the means of grace are not about earning God’s favor, twisting His arm, or controlling His blessing (21),” but can be likened to opening a faucet or flipping a light switch.

Hearing God’s voice is the most fundamental of the three habits. God has revealed Himself to us in words we can hear and read; and without constant saturation in Scripture, says Mathis, “we will soon lose the genuine gospel and the real Jesus and the true God (40).”   For those who feel “uncomfortable and inadequate” with Bible reading, his solution is simple: read the Bible regularly.  He presents meditation, study, application, and memorization as similarly compelling, breaking them down into simple and doable steps that leave no one excused. Memorization, for example, is not just rote stockpiling of material to use someday in God’s work—it works to re-shape and renew the mind.  Included are helpful tips on how to memorize as well as two “starter lists” of gospel-summary verses or passages.

A “bonus chapter” in this section concerns being a lifelong learner.  God’s Word must “cast its long shadow” on all of our learning, but Mathis also recommends having conversations with wise and godly people, reading good books, taking classes, watching educational videos, and listening to recordings as a means of redeeming even small bits of time.

Mathis’s sequencing of prayer after reading God’s Word is intentional, since prayer is not only talking to God but responding to the God who has spoken to us. Private prayer is more important than most Christians imagine—but far from reproaching those who lack, he encourages small steps toward prayerfulness. Pray, too, with other Christians; “sharpen your affections with fasting”; journal to record the frustrations and blessings you experience in prayer.  Solitude (described by some Christians as “quiet time”), whether for brief daily periods or purposeful longer retreats, is a wonderful antidote to over-stimulation.

Mathis suggests that “fellowship” has been lowered to the level of good times around food (read “fellowship meals” for his “pizza and pop”).  Genuine Christian fellowship bears more resemblance to “a…life-or-death collective venture in the face of great evil and overwhelming opposition (145)” and is covenantal in nature: Christians “anchored…as committed members together in a local outpost of Christ’s kingdom.” (149)  It includes listening to one another, worshiping and praying together, submitting ourselves to biblical teaching when we would rather converse and dialogue, and sharing in baptism and the Lord’s Supper (chapters 14-17).  

Mathis does not omit the fellowship-related blessings of rebuke and exhortation, and his exposition of the relevant scriptures will enlighten Christians who think they already know and practice them. The book concludes with a “coda” of disciplines resulting from the main three: missions, disciplemaking, and stewardship of time and money.

This book should be on the required reading list for young Christians, as well as for the more mature who have either joyfully discovered these disciplines or become weary in their striving against sin.  Its principles are more needful than ever in a cultural atmosphere of independence and self-sufficiency, and both the legalist and the “free-spirited” will come away from it admonished and hopeful.