Practice makes perfect.
I didn't practice... it was my achille's heel. I wanted to be awesome at things, but I had no follow through. Sure, I wanted to (insert skill here)... I just didn't want to take the time to practice to be good at it... I was lazy. Practice is something that we have to do in order to be better at something. There are exceptions to every rule, however, for those of us that aren't prodigies... we have to work at what we love to do.
Footballers don't just lay about until a game... they practice. Actors and musicians have rehearsals. Writers have blogs, journals and other outlets to practice their craft. The list goes on and on.
One of my favorite Jane Austen novels is Pride and Prejudice. One of the characters, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a laggard whose only accomplishment in life was being born to a wealthy family. In one scene in the novel, during a discussion about playing the piano, Lady Catherine remarks, “If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.” She has never learned how to play, she simply announces that if she had actually put any effort into it, she would have been amazing.
So what am I getting at?
Isn't this idea of practice relevant in our Christian life? We cannot just expect to acknowledge Jesus during the appropriate times and then go on with our lives as if we are no different than the person next to us. We should be different.
We should be "practicing" every day we are given...
What should we be practicing?
1. Prayer
When I pray by myself... I'm simply having a conversation. Just me and God having a chat... there is no pressure, there is no flustered babbling... it is just the two of us (and now that song is in my head), which is what prayer is really all about. God commands us to pray... He knows what I struggle with, but he wants me to talk to him openly about it. He knows what I'm dealing with, but he wants to hear it from me. The same should be true when I pray out loud in front of people... I am not praying for their ears... but God's. My petitions need no eloquent speech to make them worthy of the throne room.
We are told to pray in everything. The good, the bad, the temptation... and I know that... but sometimes... just sometimes...
I would rather pretend that God can't see me making the bad decision or saying something that I will regret later, instead of just handing my anger and frustrations over to God... but I am so very good at worrying and fretting over something silly or opening my mouth and eating my foot. I squirrel things away in the deep places of my heart instead of being open and vulnerable before God. When I do that, I find my prayer life becoming stagnant and awkward. When this happens I stop praying. Not because I don't have anything to say... believe me, I always have plenty to say (just ask my husband)... I have let sin fester in my heart and I am embarrassed to admit it. But 1 John 1:9 reminds me that: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I must decrease in order for God to increase in my life... His will, not mine be done... that is what I always need to remember. I Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. Simply talk to God.
2. Read your Bible
I love reading... I have always loved reading. The rub? I didn't always like reading the Bible. The old Testament confused me, the New Testament covicted me... and well, I wasn't a fan of feeling bad about something stupid I had done. The problem with that? When I told people that I was a Christian, the questions would come at me and I had no answers.
My reading palatte has expanded in the past few years to include some great Apologists of the past and present. I'm slowly beginning to dig into the Bible and really study what it says... work through passages that confuse me... that sort of thing. I can't just open the Bible and expect the meaning and context to just hit me... although sometimes it does blindside me in a wave of "God is awesome" or "Oh, that's what that means". Psalm 119:10-11 reads: With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. When we are in the word, we are keeping our lives and hearts in tune with God. When we are questioned about our faith, we will know where to turn and not get stuck like I used to.
As we mature in our faith, we should be less inclined to be lazy in our faith... God wants us to chase after Him... to thirst for His goodness. God loves us with a wild and untamable love.
Will your response be to chase after God? If God is our passion, shouldn't we want to know all that we can? 2 Timothy 2:15-16 answers that for us: Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth. But avoid irreverent, empty speech, for this will produce an even greater measure of godlessness.
Lady Catherine’s fantasy allowed her to overlook her own laziness and pretend that she owed her lofty position to intrinsic merit rather than an accident of birth...
Romans 8:17 tells us that we are heirs of God, with an amazing birthright... but this shouldn't make us complacent... after all
Practice makes perfect.
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