Practice. Day 29 of Lent. Two-a-days.
Say the word practice and I immediately think about football.
I’m from Texas. Here, we’re all about Friday night lights. We’ve got our Johnny Football, Gig Em Ags, Texas Fight, and ‘how ’bout them cowboys!’ My cell phone still sings out Hank’s, ‘Are You Ready For Some Football’ when my boys call. I cheered both of my sons from Pop Warner through Varsity, 3 knee surgeries, 2 broken arms, dislocated fingers, stitches, the dreaded concussion and six years of 2-a days. It’s really hot in Texas in August. Even if you get up before dawn to go to practice, it’s hot. Long, hard, tough, hot days of conditioning young bodies in the character building crucible of adversity. The repetitive grind of two-a-days prepares a player to compete at his full potential, to fight through fatigue, and to maintain sharpness and clarity under withering pressure.
Vince Lombardi said, “Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”
The two-a-day practice regimen is found in scripture too.
Psalm 1 talks about the man that is blessed, “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night . He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Two-a-days is the preparation for a season. Psalm 1 gives us the practices of a blessed man. He meditates on the Word of God day and night . Renewing our mind each morning with God’s word. Reviewing our day each evening in line with God’s word. It is God’s preparation for those who want to be blessed, who want God’s favor to rest upon them. Who want to be prepared to demolish strongholds and every argument and pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:4). It is the practice which will not fail us in times of testing, it is the provision that gives us the Mind of Christ and the Love of God and the spirit of empowerment to be a witness to our world.
On the eve of a season, where Joshua would lead Israel into a promise land hostile with fierce opposition, Joshua received a pep talk from the Captain of Hosts. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:7-9
With this charge God inspired Joshua and gave his people the strategy for victory. Meditate on God’s word day and night. If they carefully embrace His Word, reflect on it, and do it, then they will have courage to stand strong then they will be prosperous and successful and…God promised to be with them wherever they went.
Paul told the Philippians, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Again the charge is “practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Jesus tell us also, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock…and nothing could shake it.”
Finally practice is the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, it is to repeat, repeat, repeat, to exercise a skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it, and to continue to carry out or perform a particular activity, method, or custom habitually or regularly.
It is one thing to know it, another to believe it and still another to do it. PRACTICE is the actual application of what we know and believe.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22
And remember, someone once said, “practice makes perfect.”
4jlkelly 