The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Throwback Episode: 5 Obstacles to Grace

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Jeff is traveling overseas and will be taking a break from recording this week and next week! In the meantime, please enjoy this throwback episode. Are you ever frustrated due to a lack of growth in your faith? There may be many reasons for why you are struggling to grow in your faith. In this episode, Jeff Cavins focuses on five obstacles to grace that could be inhibiting your growth in faith. He offers Scripture quotations to help explain these obstacles and why it is important to overcome them. Snippet from the Show We can overcome sin and obstacles to grace. However, we can’t do it alone. To break free from sin involves two things: God’s power and our choice. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com. Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 339, Five Obstacles to Grace. Welcome back to the show, my friend. Good to have you this week. We're going to talk today about five obstacles to grace. And this show actually came about as a result of a conversation with someone this last week

who was talking to me about the frustration that they were going through because they didn't feel that they were really growing in their faith. And so we got to talking about some of the obstacles that get in the way from growing in our faith and specifically growing in grace or receiving the grace of God. And so I thought, well, you know, I'm going to share that with you this week because it kind of spoke to me too, you know. It doesn't matter how long you've been teaching the Bible or as a matter how long you've been in some kind of responsible position.

You still can allow obstacles to get in the way, you know, of your growth in the way of grace. And we'll look at grace here in just a moment. and I've got five different obstacles that do get in the way. And who knows, maybe it's just a good time for you to check those in your walk with the Lord. And hopefully it'll help you grow a little bit. Say if you do want the show notes, and I've got five obstacles to grace with scriptures today, you can simply text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and you can text it to the number 33777.

3-3-7-7. Okay, so you are experiencing some obstacles, some things that get in the way of growing. Well, let's take a look, first of all, of what grace is in your life and what grace means. I think that, you know, when you don't understand what grace really is, it kind of resorts back to it's kind of just a nebulous substance that's similar to good luck and things are going really. really, really good, you know. And grace, really the definition of grace is the life of the Trinity. The life of the Trinity. The father loves the son. The son responds with love and the love between the father and the son is the Holy Spirit. And you and I have been called to be taken up and live in the life of the Trinity, to share in the life of the Trinity, ultimately to be divinized, to become God on earth, not God in the sense that I'm God, but I am becoming like God in this earth.

And I can do his works and I can convey his message. And I can delight in the life that I have received as a result of Jesus dying for me. And I have now got that life inside of me due to baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, all three of the saccharacteries. all three of the sacraments of initiation contribute to this grace, to the life of the Trinity in me. And I need that. And you need that too. We both need the life of the Trinity in order to just live. But beyond just living, we've got responsibilities, don't we?

We have a vocation. You might be a priest or religious or you might be a deacon, married. and you might be a generous single person, but you need the life of the Trinity, the fuel of God, if you will, in order to carry out our ministry and our life, our responsibilities, I'd say. So grace, we want as much of it as we possibly can. We don't want to go on fumes. If you had a conversion experience, say, 10 years ago, well, you don't want to just continually look back to that one day and say, well,

I did it, I did it, which by the way, some people get in that rut of doing that. And they, you know, figure that, well, I did that one time. And so I must be good. There's even a teaching out there among some Protestant circles, which is not biblical at all. And that is once saved, always saved. You did that on September 3rd, 1974, and it's still there. No matter what you do, and that's just not true. We need to be refreshed.

Yes, we are sons and daughters of God, but we need to be refreshed. We need to live on some kind of spiritual oxygen, which is grace. Now, the greatest source of grace known to mankind is the Eucharist. Now, the Eucharist is not, it is not just a memory of communion over 2,000 years ago. And it's not just a symbol of what Jesus did. did for us, of his life. No, the Eucharist is actually the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus given up for us at Calvary and re-experienced sacramentally every time we go to Mass. Every time we receive the Eucharist, there just isn't anything. There's no experience, there's no book,

there's no substance that can replace the power and effectiveness of the Eucharist. And if we we believe that, then it would behoove us to go to communion, go to Mass as often as we possibly can. And when we receive it, we receive it with a thankful heart saying, Lord, thank you so much for giving me, giving me this life of the Trinity. I need it. I need it in my marriage. I need it at work. I need it in my own personal life to resist sin, to walk in holiness. I need it for courage. I need it for courage. I need it for courage. I need it for work. wisdom in my life. So grace is the life of the Trinity. We need it desperately. Now, there are obstacles. And by an obstacle, I think that's pretty self-explanatory, but an obstacle is something

that impedes the grace. It gets in the way. It hinders. It blocks. It keeps me from receiving the grace in my life that I really need. And there's a number of things that get in the way directly. And then non-directly, there's a few things that get in the way as well. And that's an attitude that we might have. So let me give you these five obstacles to grace. The first one is one that will keep you right where you're at right now for the rest of your life unless you do something about it. And that is a lack of knowledge. A lack of knowledge can be an obstacle to grace. Josea the prophet said in chapter 4 and verse 6, and I'll put this in the show notes for you, he said, my people, well, before I read that to you, Josea spoke to the northern kingdom of Israel. You may remember from your Bible timeline chart, the kingdom that Saul, David, and Solomon had, that divided in 930 BC into two kingdoms.

Israel to the north, 10 tribes led by Jeroboam, two tribes to the south, Judah. That's the line of Jesus. And that was two tribes to the south. And Rehaboam, son of Solomon, was the king over the south. And so, Josea, the prophet, he speaks to the north, and he says something. You know, he says something they need to hear because I'll tell you what. You talk about an obstacle to grace, cutting yourself off from the temple in Jerusalem. Here's what it says in Hosea 4-6,

My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. They don't know about his deep love for them. Now, let me read that scripture once again. My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. That's what I want to convey to you, Josea 4-6. A lack of knowledge leads to destruction. They don't know about his deep love for them. They don't know how God wants to walk with them at work and at home.

and they don't know that God wants to have this deep relationship with them. They are cut off and they have a lack of knowledge. Now, that can happen to us as well. If you stop growing, if you stop reading scripture, if you stop meditating on scripture, and you stop thinking with the church, that lack of knowledge can be parlayed into destruction in your life. If you're going to go without the Eucharist and you're going to go without the grace

that God gives us in the Eucharist, in the sacraments in general, like confession, grace is conferred there in the sacrament of confession. We receive grace from one another in sharing with one another and encouraging one another. But if there's a lack of knowledge, then you are going to, you're going to be suffering when it comes to grace. And so a recommendation there, and that is to get into a Bible study, might I suggest the Great Adventure Bible Study, the Bible timeline. We also have Matthew Acts. We have the book of Revelation, James, Ephesians, Psalms.

What else? We've got several other ones too. And we really encourage you to get into those. Romans and grow in your faith. The Word of God will feed you. but you're going to put up an obstacle if you're going to say, I've already learned enough. I was confirmed back in 1973 and that's good enough for me.

No. Second obstacle to grace is traditions and ruts. Now right away, I am not speaking about the tradition that we celebrate as Catholics. As Catholics, we believe in the tradition. Tradition simply means to pass on and to relay the data, the information. It's the tradition. We do believe that Jesus gave the deposit of faith to the early apostles, and they ordained successors to pass the teachings of Jesus, whether it be written or taught.

They pass that on throughout the ages, and that's not what we're talking about. I'm talking about traditions and ruts that get in the way. They are traditions that are unproductive, unproductive. Listen to what Matthew 156 says. Jesus said, you nullify the word of God for the sake of your traditions. In other words, you do what you do just because that's the way it's always been. We don't question our life. One man once said, the unexamined life is not worth living.

The unexamined life is not worth living. So what would be a tradition or a rut that we could get into? Well, there's positive traditions in ruts. Like you're going to just close the day with a simple prayer. You know, Lord, thank you for this day. I give it to you, amen, okay? No, there's nothing wrong with a prayer like that. That's a beautiful prayer, well, thought out.

But if you're saying to yourself, well, that's our tradition. That's what we do. That's all we do. Well, you get yourself stuck in a rut. Or if you say, well, you know, fishing season opens up every June and Minnesota. And so we're going to go up north for fishing opening, and that's our tradition. And that's the only Sunday I miss every year. But hey, only missing one isn't so bad. And it's like a tradition. Dad and I go to the pancake shop up north. We miss Mass every year. Well, that's the kind of

tradition that's silly, and it impedes the grace of God in your life. Now, that's also a silly example. but traditions in ruts can get in the way from the grace of God, the grace of God. What if you had a tradition that only once a year you went to confession? Well, you're robbing yourself right then. That can become a problem, right? That can become a problem. The third obstacle to grace is disobedience. just plain out old-fashioned disobedience.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter 4, I'll put this in the notes, said, it still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in to the promised land because of their disobedience. Therefore, God again said a certain day, calling it today, when hearts are hardened, this is an amazing a couple of verses here. In Hebrews

4 and verse 6, what it's saying is, without reading the whole thing, is what it's saying is that Israel failed to enter the rest. They were created on the 6th day, but they were created for the 7th day to enter into the rest, the finished work of God. They failed to do it because of disobedience. did not walk in faith. If you walk in disobedience, you're going to cut off the grace of God in your life really quick. You're going to, you're going to begin to suffer. Oh, you might not know it right away, but you're going to eventually experience the consequences of disobedience. It's like when you grew up

in your home and you were disobedient to your parents, there was nothing fun about that. It did affect your life, especially when you got caught. It affected your life. But disobedience, not doing the things that you know you're supposed to do can result in a lack of grace in your life. And doing those things that you know you're not supposed to do. That can affect the grace in your life. Now, Peter in the New Testament said in 2nd Peter chapter 2, they promised them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity for a man, is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of

righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. of them the proverbs are true a dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud isn't that true we cling to pleasures and promise us fulfillment but in reality only trap us and in some cases destroy us drugs alcohol sexual deviancies promiscuity these are obvious but there there is the habit of lying and stealing to be envious. These are things that are more hidden, but they will, these things that are disobedient will steal the grace of God in your life.

We're going to take a break. I got two more to share with you on the other side of this break. You are listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Someone shows up in your parish because they're being drawn towards the Catholic Church. Maybe they can't quite explain why, but something is pulling them. OCIA could be the moment that changes everything for them, where a quiet curiosity becomes a real encounter with Jesus Christ. But the gap between how OCIA is and how it could be is real. And the catechus leading it need more than a schedule.

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actively, both interiorly and exteriorly. Our hope at Ascension is that invited will help make OCIA in your parish what it was always meant to be, a true journey into life with Christ. To learn more, visit ascensionpress.com slash invited. Welcome back, talking about five things that steal the grace, five obstacles to grace in our lives. We just went through three of them, lack of knowledge, traditions, and ruts, disobedience. Those three will definitely impede the grace of God, which is the life of the Trinity. They'll impede the life of God, the grace in your life. The fourth one is time. Ephesians says, Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 5 and verse 15. Again, these are in the notes.

Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. We say that we don't have enough time, right? Let me read that scripture to you again. I just want to accent that. Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. So we can impede the grace of God in our life if we are unwise, and we don't use our time wisely. We can get ourselves into trouble. We say that we don't have enough time, don't we?

We don't have enough time to be an effective Christian when in reality every moment and everything and every day, everything we do and say can be a part of our walk with God. It's amazing. It's like finding change in the sofa. If you look, there is time every day to sanctify yourself and grow in wisdom, grow in holy, there is no reason to waste time. What a horrible thing to think about that God gives you 24 hours a day,

365 days a year. And one of the things we talk about is wasting time. I'm just going to waste some time. I'm going to kill some time here. Kill time. Time can be very valuable to grow in grace. You want to kill time? Go to adoration. If it's just a matter of killing time, go to mass every day. pick up your Bible and read it every day right so time is not something we want to waste time is something we want to redeem that is make the most of it so that we can receive all the grace that we can possibly get we really have to face ourselves don't we today do we need the grace yes let's use time wisely and then the fifth one is pride ooh pride a man's pride brings them low says proverbs 29, 23, pride can bring you down. Pride is when you have an improper assessment of yourself as you are

relating to God and as you relate to one another. It puffs you up. It puts you in a category that is not you. And pride will keep you from receiving grace because you'll think I really don't need that bad. I don't need to read the Bible every day. I get it on Sunday. I'm fine. I'm a modern Christian. I know what I'm doing and, you know, it's the old pulling yourself up by the bootstraps type of mentality. Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter 3, he said, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit? Are you now to be able to? Are you now

trying to attain your goal by human effort? That's pride. That's pride. So ask yourself today, you received, as Paul said there, you began with the spirit. Are you now living and are you continuing on with this walk just with human effort? Oh, don't do that. Repent of that. Put that on the old confession list.

If you're continuing just in your own strength, you're going to put an obstacle in the way of receiving the grace that God has for you. So there's five, five obstacles to grace, lack of knowledge, tradition and ruts, disobedience, time, and pride. But here's the good news. You can overcome. You can do something about this.

We can overcome sin and these obstacles of grace, but we can't do it alone, right? Just like Paul said to the Galatians, we can't do it alone. To break free from sin involves two things, His power and number two, our choice. His power, our choice. And I love what Paul said to the Ephesians in chapter 3 and verse 20.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the power that is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ. Well, I hope that. Hope that makes a difference this week. I really do love to hear from you. write me at the Jeff Kaven show at ascensionpress.com. Make sure you share the show with at least two or three people this week.

Two or three people, and I appreciate comments and liking the show, and it helps with the algorithm. You and I can work together to get the Word of God out there. And let me pray for you. I'd love to pray for you today, as my friend, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we love you so much. and we ask you, oh God, to help us to grow in grace.

Help us, Lord, to deal with the obstacles that we have put in the way. We thank you for helping us when it comes to a lack of knowledge in our life. May we hunger for you. May we notice the traditions in our life that are nullifying the Word of God and deal with those and help us, Lord, to have a heart of obedience rather than disobedience. And, Lord, we ask you to help us use our time-wise, to not be time killers and time wasters. And, oh God, we humble ourselves before you. We do not want to walk in pride. We want to walk in humility and learn from you and learn from others. We thank you for

doing this in our heart today. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God bless you. Have just a marvelous week.