"Conversion is a gift and and achievement. It is the act of a moment and the work of a lifetime. You cannot attain salvation by disciplines--it is the gift of God. But you cannot retain it without disciplines. If you try to attain salvation by disciplines, you will be trying to discipline an unsurrendered self. You will be sitting on a lid. The result will be tenseness instead of trust. 'You will wrestle instead of nestle.' While salvation cannot be attained by discipline around an unsurrendered self, nevertheless when the self is surrendered to Christ and a new center formed, then you can discipline your life around that new center--Christ. Discipline is the fruit of conversion--not the root.
The passage gives the double-sidedness of conversion: 'As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith' (Col. 2:6-7 RSV). Note, 'received'--receptivity; 'so live'--activity. It appears again, 'rooted'--receptivity, 'built up in him'--activity....The alternate beats of the Christian heart are receptivity and response--receptivity from God and response from us."
"The best Man that ever lived on our planet illustrated this receptivity and response rhythm. No one was so utterly dependent on God and no one was more personally disciplined in his habits.
He did three things by habit: (1) 'He stood up to read as was his custom'--he read the Word of God by habit. (2) 'He went out into the mountain to pray as was his custom'--he prayed by habit. (3) 'He taught them again as was his custom'--he passed on to others by habit what he had and what he had found.
These simple habits were the foundation habits of his life. They are as up-to-date as tomorrow morning. No converted person can live without those habits at work vitally in his life."
-- from Conversion
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