“The central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of the kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in its proper order….Everything hinges upon maintaining the first thing first. Nothing must come before the Kingdom of God.
To describe simplicity only as an inner reality is to say something false. The inner reality is not a reality until there is an outward expression. To experience the liberating spirit of simplicity will affect how we live.
Every attempt to give specific application to simplicity runs the risk of deteriorating into legalism. It is a risk, however, that we must take, for to refuse to discuss specifics would banish the discipline to the theoretical. After all, the writers of Scripture constantly took that risk.
And so I follow their lead and suggest ten controlling principles for the outward expression of simplicity.”
Foster’s ten simplicity principles will follow over the next ten days.
Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 86-90.