All through my elementary years in school, I can remember my teachers telling me "practice makes perfect". The more you practice at something, the better you will be and eventually you will gain perfection at it. Funny how as an adult, God is now using these words to affect my spiritual growth.
For the last couple of months, we have been studying in the book of 1 and 2 Samuel in our Sunday school class. I have been so thankful for the lessons that God has been teaching me through Hannah, Eli, Saul, David, Uzzah and several others in the scriptures. This past week's lesson really convicted me of my personal relationship with God. How thankful I am that God continues to teach those who teach others, because we all have room for growth!
Do we have and display "true" obedience and reverence for our Lord? Do we "truly" acknowledge the bible as His living word and obey it or leave it laying around our home like any other book collecting dust? Do we attend church to enter "true" worship of God or just for show and routine? Do we experience "awe and fear" when we approach God in prayer or are we so comfortable that we take Him for granted? Do we say we won't sin but when we do excuse it with "God will forgive me because of His mercy and grace?" I am sure we all could regrettably confess our lack thereof to any of these questions. I will admit that as a christian, I have justified my falling or stumbling with God's mercy and grace in the past. I am guilty of saying "I am not perfect, only God is perfect and I make mistakes. Of course we all know that God loves us and He does shower us with His mercy and grace. I am not taking away from what He offers us, because after all, that is why He sacrificed His only son...for our sins. What I am trying to share comes from Matthew 5:48 "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." I believe God is telling us to be as "perfect" as we can be with where we are spiritually. We were created in His image and as He grows us to be more like Him, we are to adhere to His teachings. If we have received instruction from His word and we know that something is wrong according to Him, then we should practice being obedient and obtain perfection of His instruction instead of excusing our disobedience with taking His forgiveness, mercy and grace for granted. We Christians need to step up in this world! We need to pray, encourage and hold each other accountable to be the example of Christ that we are called to be in order to reach a dying world. The more we practice being obedient, the more perfection in Christ we will receive. We are a "work in progress" but we should strive to be "perfection in progress" for the Lord until He returns and we are made "completely" perfect in Him.
My purpose of this blog is not to discourage anyone, but to hopefully encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ for us all to practice, practice, and then practice some more being obedient in every way so that we would be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Remember: Practice makes perfect!
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