Mike DuBose Mike DuBose, UMNS
Holy Communion 2022
Participating regularly in Holy Communion forms one of the "means of grace" listed by Methodism's founder John Wesley. (UMNS Photo)
Oboedire | July 3, 2025
Wesley’s third rule was to “attend the ordinances of God.” We do not speak like this today. We would say, “tend the light.” Rueben Job called it staying in love with God. By whatever name, Wesley meant the practice of the means of grace,[1] also referred to as the spiritual disciplines.[2]
Here is another reminder that making it through hard times is an ongoing endeavor, not a one-time achievement. All we have to do is read the psalms attributed to David, and we see that he went through multiple dark valleys. And so will we.
The means of grace are the chief ways (but not the only ones) that God’s grace continues to flow into us (works of piety) and through us to others (works of mercy). They are like pipelines coming into, and running through, our spiritual house by which we experience the Water of Life day after day. We drink again and again, for as long as we live, nourished by God so that we can make it through good days, and bad.
[1] Elaine Heath, Five Means of Grace (Abingdon Press, 2017).
[2] Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition (HarperOne, 2018).