Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

Simplicity, then, is getting in touch with the divine center.

For now, do not worry about “proper” praying, just talk to God. Share your hurts, share your sorrows, share your joys – freely and openly. God listens in compassion and love, just like we do when our children come to us.

Prayer is a little like that. With simplicity of heart we allow ourselves to be gathered up into the arms of the Father and let him sing his love song over us.

I said that every Discipline has its corresponding freedom. What freedom corresponds to submission? It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today.

Martin Luther declares that the life of the Christian should be one of daily repentance. Daily we confess, daily we repent, daily we “turn, turn, ’til we turn ’round right.” The Prayer of Tears is the primary aid to our turning.

When the poor farmer of India is unable to buy a gallon of gasoline to run his simple water pump because the world’s demand has priced him out of the market, who is to blame?

There simply are no biblical laws that command regular fasting. Our freedom in the gospel, however, does not mean license; it means opportunity.

God’s blessing is not for personal aggrandizement, but to benefit and bless all the peoples of the earth. To understand the distinction makes all the difference in the world. The theology of wealth says, ‘I give so that I can get.’ Christian simplicity says, ‘I get so that I can give.’ The difference is profound.

If worship does not change us it has not been worship.