Heart-to-Heart Ministry Requires Discipline

Each of us has a routine when we get up in the morning. Some of us head for our cup of coffee, others pick up the paper to check the headlines, and some (like me!) take the dog outside. Routines hold our lives together.

Author Jean Fleming writes that our lives are “held together by a web of habits that have become nearly automatic.”[1] Consciously or unconsciously, we fill our lives with habits and routines, so most of them are now automatic. These small habits are necessary because, as Jan Johnson puts it, “disciplines provide personal space in which relationship is worked out.”[2]

Peggy and I have celebrated forty-five years of marriage. Because I work out of our home, we see each other frequently during the day. We seem to always be present with each other. However, this alone doesn’t guarantee a good marriage. We can pass each other repeatedly during the day and never have a conversation. Being present in the same place and time does not equate to loving another.

Routine Is Important, Even if Imperfect

To maintain our love, we’ve settled on some daily and weekly disciplines. Daily, we take time to talk. Weekly, we go out for a date night. These simple disciplines keep our love focused and refreshed. It’s the same way in our walk with God. We need to make regular investments into our love relationship with Him. I like to call these investments, these disciplines, our “love habits.”

I have several love habits for investing in my love for Jesus. One in particular has sustained my life for five decades. Here’s how it got started.

When I became a Christian in my sophomore year in college, Ed introduced me to the practice of a “quiet time,” a designated time during the day to read the Bible and pray. It was easy to maintain this habit when I was around friends in our campus ministry who practiced a quiet time and kept me accountable. This changed when I returned home for summer break and my network of Christian friends evaporated.

“Without a love for God we have a dry, mechanical faith that doesn’t impart life to others.”

Left on my own, my time with God soon became one of fond memories. Work, time with former friends, and the lack of accountability had put my time with God on the shelf . . . until I picked up a certain book.

Tucked under a stack of papers and vinyl records in my bedroom was a small, inexpensive book titled The School of Obedience by a nineteenth-century author, Andrew Murray. At the end of the book was this challenge: Can you spend the first thirty minutes of every day alone with God? Are you willing to make this sacrifice? I still have this time-weathered book, which has been reprinted and reissued countless times. The original cover price of mine was fifty cents, and my pencil underlining is still present. Here’s a passage that leapt out at me:

Christ asked great sacrifices of His disciples; He has perhaps asked little of you as yet. But now He allows, He invites, He longs for you to make some. Sacrifices make strong men [and women]. Sacrifices help wonderfully to wrench us away from earth and self-pleasing, and lift us heavenward.[3]

God grabbed my heart. I decided in the summer of 1970 that I would get up each morning and have my time with God. I could schedule time during the day or before I went to bed, but I wanted to make the sacrifice to seek Him in the morning, to give Him the first portion of my day.

Have I been 100 percent perfect in maintaining this daily habit? No, but I bet I’m around 75–80 percent over five decades. I can’t imagine what life would be like if I didn’t maintain this simple love habit.

Have I lost motivation at times? Yes. Is every morning a life-changing experience? No. Can I make this a “means,” a simple checkoff in my spiritual life? Of course. I have to work at keeping this time fresh in both vision and practice.

In heart-to-heart ministry, we recruit people to live the Great Commandment. Without a love for God we have a dry, mechanical faith that doesn’t impart life to others. Let me ask you the same questions I ask others: What are you doing to invest in your first love? What love habits are you practicing to feed your soul and to treasure God? When we invite people to walk with us, we invite them into a heart-to-heart relationship that starts with loving God.

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If you’d like to read more about Heart-to-Heart Ministry from Bill Mowry, check out the entire series of articles:

• What Is “Heart-to-Heart” Ministry?
• Heart-to-Heart Ministry Is Rooted in Our Relationship With God
• Heart-to-Heart Ministry Leads Us to Love Our Neighbors
• Heart-to-Heart Ministry Requires Intentionality
• Heart-to-Heart Ministry Requires Discipline

You can learn more about Bill Mowry here, and more about the work of The Navigators here.

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[1] Jean Fleming, Feeding Your Soul: A Quiet Time Handbook (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1999), 19.

[2] Jan Johnson, Savoring God’s Word: Cultivating the Soul-Transforming Practice of Scripture Meditation (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004), 37.

[3] Andrew Murray, The School of Obedience, 124. The book I have that sold for 50 cents was published by Moody Books (now Moody Publishers, which offers this classic as an e-book). You can find this highly recommended book in various formats, including with slightly updated language.