Practice

The first week of NFL football is now complete. Teams have been preparing for this for a while. They have been practicing for some time now. For most teams we got to see what all the excitement was about Sunday. Some teams performed well and some teams not so well. All those teams will say something to the effect of, “We will learn from this game and move on to the next game.” As I thought about the football season, I saw some parallels to the Christian life.

We have “practice” as well. By practice, I mean we go to Bible class, worship, gospel meetings, Vacation Bible School, our own personal study, etc. to learn God’s plays. We learn what God wants and how to do what he wants us to do in our daily lives. We need good practices. The old saying of “you play like you practice,” I believe is true. So we need to have good Bible teaching so that we know what to do and how to do it. But at some point we have to take all that practice and put it into play. James says “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” What good does it do for me to study the word of God and not live it out in my life?

Some teams played well this weekend; some did not. In taking up our cross daily and trying to live out the word of God, sometimes we are going to do well, and sometimes we are not going to do well. How do we handle that? Just like those teams, we look for things that did not go right and work on those, and we build on the things that did go right. How do I know what went wrong? Those things that were not in line with the word of God. How do I know what went right? Those things that were in line with the word of God. Go out there and play your best (live your life) for the one who gave His life for you.