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Prayer For LifeSample

Prayer For Life

DAY 4 OF 7

DAY FOUR: Legalism vs. Grace

I was four years into full-time ministry. My son, Jason, was barely a teenager, Jared was knocking on the door of his teen years, and my daughter, Kate, had yet to celebrate her first decade on earth. I was driven to get up at 5:30 in the morning and do our devotions together.

I experienced a season of Christianity based on works. To be clear, I was preaching a gospel of grace in those early years. But mine was a message of grace coupled with human effort. My attitude and the mandate I made for my family was that we were going to doggedly serve God.

I could never enjoy myself. If I went to a summer fair, I would feel weighted down by a burden to save people. “How can I enjoy myself,” I would think, “while people all around me are lost and going to hell?”

My kids loved me as their father, but they resented the life I was forcing them to lead. One day, when we were preparing to go to a social event, one of my children said, “Dad, please stay home. Everywhere we go, you just ruin it for us.”

I can see so clearly now that my dogged Christianity was nauseating. If I had the chance to raise my children again, it would be a very different life for them. But I didn’t come into a covenant understanding of the joy of the Lord until I was thirty-seven years old. I was saved at the age of twenty-four and wouldn’t fully understand grace for thirteen years.

The Christianity I forced on my family was unattractive—well-intentioned, but foolish. I received full covenant when I broke down and couldn’t do it anymore in my own strength. When that happened, I finally realized that I could only go forward by grace.

Day 3Day 5

About this Plan

Prayer For Life

Has your faith taken a beating? Do you feel like your heart has grown hard towards God? Based on the book “It’s Time to Pray: God’s Prayer Changes Everything” by Carter Conlon, this 7-day devotional will illuminate God’s grace on your life and help you sow seeds of faith again. Break up the hard ground of unbelief and learn to live the abundant life Jesus died to give you.

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We would like to thank Charisma House for providing this plan. For more information, please visit:
http://bit.ly/ConlonSampleForm