When we feel spiritually weak or discouraged, we may assume we need something dramatic: a powerful experience, a new method, or some breakthrough.
But God ordinarily strengthens His people through simple, familiar gifts: His Word, prayer, the ordinances, and the fellowship of the saints. We call these the ordinary means of grace.
“Ordinary” doesn’t mean unimportant. It means Christ has appointed these regular means to feed, comfort, correct, and preserve His people.
The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). They gathered around the same gifts Christ continues to give His church today.
Through preaching and the reading of Scripture, we hear God’s truth, and our hearts turn back to Christ. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Through prayer, we draw near to our Father in childlike dependence, confess our sins, and bring our needs before Him.
Through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the gospel is made visible. Baptism displays our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. At the Lord’s Table, we remember and proclaim that He gave His body and shed His blood for us (Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
Through fellowship, believers encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens, and stir one another toward love and good works (Heb. 10:24-25).
These means aren’t ways of earning God’s favor. They are gifts given to weary sinners who can’t sustain themselves. Their power doesn’t come from human ability or religious effort, but from the Holy Spirit working through what Christ has appointed.
Dear Christian, when you feel weary, don’t conclude that God has forgotten you because nothing dramatic is happening. Keep gathering with His people. Keep hearing His Word. Keep praying. Keep coming to the Table. Christ delights to strengthen weary sinners through the ordinary means of grace, for the glory of God.
The means may appear ordinary, but the Savior who meets us through them is anything but.