Waking Up to Grace

How do you pray to God without wondering whether you are doing it the right way? Prayer can easily become another spiritual performance measured by posture, length, technique, or the right words.

In this conversation, we look at prayer through the freedom of grace and reconciliation. Because of Christ, we can approach our Father honestly and confidently. Prayer does not have to be a formula. It can become an ongoing conversation with the God who already knows us, loves us, and invites us to trust Him.

Read the companion study and join the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/093-prayer-grace-and-living-the-reconciled-life/

Is God disappointed in me when I fail? This conversation begins with whether a Christian can become displeasing to God and looks at that question through the New Covenant. Because our standing with the Father rests in Christ, we do not have to live wondering whether every failure has changed His mind about us. God is pleased with His children, and our failures do not make Him see us as failures.

From there, we talk about what happens when fear, anxiety, or difficult circumstances cause us to forget who we are. Renewing the mind brings us back to what God has already made true. We are new creations, we have His Spirit, and faith sometimes means believing and confessing who God says we are even when our feelings and circumstances seem to say something different.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/092-faith-through-identity-in-christ/

What is the church according to the Bible? Many Christians instinctively think of church as a building, an organization, or a Sunday morning service. But the biblical picture begins with people: believers joined together in Christ and sharing life in genuine community.

In this conversation, we explore what it means to be the church rather than simply go to church. We talk about Christ being revealed through Christian community, why Scripture and biblical knowledge remain essential, and what happens when knowledge begins pointing to ourselves instead of Jesus. We also consider how grace, the new heart, and the Spirit of God shape a living community centered on Christ rather than programs, performance, or religious status.

Read the companion study and join the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/091-grace-knowledge-and-the-living-church/

Why do so many Christians continue carrying guilt even after believing they are forgiven? This conversation begins with the tension many believers experience in church life and moves into the familiar cycle of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and repeat. When forgiveness always seems to depend on what we do next, Christian guilt can keep us looking at our failures instead of resting in what Christ has already accomplished.

We talk about religious performance, self-effort, uncertainty about forgiveness, and the exhaustion that comes from continually trying to make ourselves acceptable to God. Rather than returning to repentance and asking forgiveness as a formula for growth, the conversation follows Peter’s emphasis on putting away sin, growing in the knowledge of Christ, and seeing grace and peace multiply as we learn to live from what is already ours in Him.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/090-ending-the-sin-repent-repeat-struggle/

What does Christian living actually look like after we have been saved by grace? Peter does not begin with sin management, religious rules, or a list of behaviors. He begins with a faith we have already received.

In this episode, we follow Peter’s progression in 2 Peter 1 from faith to virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. Each quality grows from dependence on Christ and a deeper knowledge of what He has already accomplished. Christian living is not an attempt to earn righteousness. It is the expression of the life and righteousness already given to us.

Peter’s pattern also helps explain spiritual growth, endurance, fruitfulness, anxiety, self-control, and Jesus’ teaching about the vine and the branches. The Christian life begins with grace, grows through dependence on Christ, and ultimately expresses itself in love.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/089-peters-template-for-grace-living-2-peter-1-3-10/

What does Peter mean when he says believers become partakers of the divine nature? Does divine nature describe Christian behavior, spiritual growth, our standing before God, or something deeper?

In this episode, we work through 2 Peter 1 and Peter’s declaration that believers have received a faith of equal standing through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Divine nature begins with what God has given, not what we earn. Peter connects it with the gospel, forgiveness, the life of Christ within us, and a growing knowledge of the Lord that multiplies grace and peace.

We also consider why forgetting that we have been cleansed from sin can distort the Christian life, how continual uncertainty about forgiveness pulls our attention away from Christ, and why partaking in the divine nature means living from the life and righteousness we have already received.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/088-what-does-divine-nature-mean-2-peter-1-3-4/

Peter says God’s divine power has already given believers everything pertaining to life and godliness. But what does that mean when life becomes painful, uncertain, or frightening?

In this episode, we walk through 2 Peter 1 and the difference between living by what we can see and trusting what God has already provided in Christ. Peter’s promise does not depend on easy circumstances. Through the knowledge of Jesus, believers have been given what they need to endure hardship, walk by faith, renew their minds, and depend on the power of God rather than their own strength.

We also consider Peter’s own experience with fear, Abraham’s living faith, the work of the Holy Spirit, and why spiritual provision does not mean the absence of suffering. It means we do not face suffering empty-handed.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/087-everything-pertaining-to-life-and-godliness-is-yours-2-peter-1-3/

Does God want us to be happy? What does happiness in the Bible look like when life includes suffering, fear, anxiety, and circumstances we cannot control?

In this episode, we look at Paul’s experiences of despair, fear, imprisonment, and anxiety for the churches, along with what he later described as learning the secret of contentment. His life helps us distinguish between experiencing difficult emotions and allowing those emotions to control us.

We also consider Paul’s instruction not to be anxious about anything, the role of prayer, thanksgiving, humility, and trust when anxiety surfaces, and why physical or emotional struggles should not automatically be treated as evidence of weak faith. Biblical happiness is not a promise that our circumstances will always feel good. Paul points us toward something deeper: contentment and dependence on God whether we are brought low or abound.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/086-does-god-want-us-to-be-happy/

What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh, and why did the Lord refuse to remove it? Paul identifies the thorn as a messenger of Satan sent to torment him and explains that it kept him from becoming conceited because of the revelations he had received.

In this episode, we follow Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12 and consider why God allowed the thorn to remain. Paul’s suffering was not punishment for his past. The Lord used it to keep him humble and dependent on His grace, teaching Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness. We also look at Satan’s role in Paul’s suffering, the way of escape God provides during temptation, and why endurance rests on the strength of the Lord rather than our own.

Paul wanted the thorn removed. God gave him something greater: sufficient grace and the strength to endure.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/085-what-was-pauls-thorn-in-the-flesh-2-corinthians-12-7/

What is fellowship with God? Is it something Christians move in and out of depending on their behavior, confession, or spiritual performance?

In this episode, we look at fellowship with the Holy Spirit and what Scripture reveals about the believer’s relationship with God under the New Covenant. Fellowship is not a cycle of losing God’s favor and working our way back into it. The Holy Spirit has been given to believers forever, and our standing with the Father rests in Christ rather than our ability to maintain it.

We also consider what fellowship looks like in everyday life, especially through suffering, weakness, anxiety, and difficult circumstances. Paul and the other apostles learned to depend on the Lord rather than themselves. Grace does not promise a life without hardship, but it gives us the presence and strength of God within us as we walk through it.

Read the companion study and continue the conversation:
https://wakinguptograce.com/084-what-is-fellowship-with-god/