ApprehendingGrace.com

Last week I shared some of the lessons God’s been teaching me while learning a new sport. Last week’s lessons were primarily lessons in humility and discipline. The lessons I learned weren’t all personal ones, however. Learning a new sport – that is an activity that I essentially had no familiarity with prior to eight months ago – provided a great reminder about the process of learning something new – and our walk with the Lord should always be a process of learning something new.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that becoming a more mature Christian simply happens – either by coming to know Christ or by knowing Him for a longer period of time. While the Lord is gracious, especially with new Christians, nothing is farther from the truth. If it were true, Paul wouldn’t impress upon us to “finish the race” – it would happen automatically.

I don’t think my experience was unique. Two things characterized my life as a new Christian: I loved studying His Word and spiritually I was growing at breakneck speed. Of course those two things were related, but both were also a function of God’s tremendous grace that is available to new believers. For many people, me included, spiritual lessons come easy in those early days.

While this is wonderful – wonderful! – it builds an expectation that spiritual growth just sort of happens automatically. After all, it didn’t feel like I was trying very hard and God was enabling me to grow andpractices o was consistently the worst shooter on the range on any given day to being able to consistently hit the target, usually within a couple of inches of where I’m aiming – for you non-shooters, that’s not bad, not bad at all. I went from being a lousy shot to being a pretty fair one. I’m not winning any awards, but I’m not doing badly either.

The  disciplines and that allowed me to improve as a shooter are the same disciplines and practices that will help me grow spiritually.

Why do I care about becoming spiritually mature? Two reasons:It pleases God and it benefits me. I like to think I’m motivated purely by the former. The truth is that the latter is important to me, too. Know what? God knows that! That’s why He’s taken the time to explain those reasons to me as well. The more I become like Christ (which is another way of saying becoming spiritually mature), the more I will live a blessed life. I will have more peace and contentment. I will walk into every situation with the presence of God as my constant companion. I will not be shaken by the circumstances of this world. What a great way to live! And of course it’s an even better way to die.

But I digress. Let’s look at the practices that helped me improve as a shooter.

Study: Shooting a gun accurately requires a whole lot more than picking it up, pointing it and pulling the trigger. Over the past six months I have spent a fair amount of time learning about what those other things are. I read. I watched videos. I read some more. I talked to people. I received formal and informal instruction from experts. I learned about types of guns, gun safety, gun handling, loading, cleaning, and of course shooting.

Paul urged Timothy to “study” to show that he is “a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, NRSV) If we don’t study God’s Word, we will not learn how to properly use it. It will not be a weapon available to us when the enemy attacks. That means you and I must spend time studying Scripture. Not just reading it devotionally, but studying it. Take notes during your pastor’s sermons. Join a small group that studies the Bible (not just books about the Bible). Study it on your own. Just study!

Apply what I learned: That manifested itself in three ways –

1. I had to do things I’d never done before
2. I had to do things differently than I ever had before
3. I had to do things that just didn’t feel right

You can imagine that each of those things made me uncomfortable, but if I hadn’t endured the discomfort — worked through it – I would never have progressed. The same is true in our spiritual life. When we learn about practices in the Bible that are new to use, we need to try them. Maybe you’ve never fasted before – give it a try. Maybe you’ve never prayed with your arms raised – it’s Scriptural, so give it a try. It will feel unnatural – it won’t feel “right” – but try it. Then try it again. And again. Because it doesn’t feel right the first or the second or the third time. But eventually it clicks and it’s very right. Maybe you don’t like to pray in public. Get over it! Quit thinking about yourself and think about  the heart of God. Then pray.

Open yourself up to being obedient to serving and worshiping God in new ways. You will be uncomfortable. It won’t feel right at first. But there are facets of God to be discovered in those new patterns. Don’t miss them because you’re unwilling to be uncomfortable.

Practice. Then practice more. Phil and I have taken many basic ballroom dance classes. One of our early instructors used to tell our class over and over again that we needed to practice each step a thousand times. Our next instructor was a very sweet older man. He would get a bit lost in his love for the dance and he’d encourage us to practice our dance steps as we walked down the street. Then he would demonstrate the practice. Phil and I were never quite ready to be that bold (aka, look that foolish) in public, but the point is both instructors agreed that the only way to learn the dance steps were to do the over and over and over again.

Getting something right doesn’t mean you’ve learned it. It means you’re somewhere between lucky and experiencing your “aha” moment – that point at which what you’re learning makes sense. To actually learn it you must do it correctly over and over again until doing it right is more natural than doing it wrong. Doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about target shooting or serving God.

The first time you pray publicly you might blunder your way through it. That’s OK. God isn’t judging you badly – he’s proud that you’re trying. Trust me – the person you know who prays beautifully in publicly – hey didn’t start out sounding like that and God doesn’t honor them or their prayers more than he honors you or your prayers.

Make time for it! To study, try new things and practice takes time. And time doesn’t materialize on its own. Phil and I had a weekly range date – Thursdays during lunch. Previously Thursdays had been our day to go out to lunch together. We had to give up those dates for our new dates. We also tried to fit another range date in many weeks. It meant not doing something else. To read in the evening we had to watch less TV. Growing spiritually means we have to make time commitments for God. When will you set aside time to study His Word? When will you set aside time to pray? When will you set aside time to serve Him in whatever area He’s called you?

There is payoff, friends. You will grow in Him. You will draw closer to Him. You will become more like Him. Those are very good things. Worth far more than gold or rubies. Worth more than the pearl of great price.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2013 at 7:08 am and is filed under Blessed Life, Christian Living, Sacrifice, Spiritual Maturity, training for spiritual growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.