Have you ever tried to do something like play a musical instrument, act in a play, or participate in a sport and struggle with how difficult it is to be really good at it? Or maybe you have some natural ability and it takes you so far but then you plateau and cannot seem to see improvement? I enjoy playing golf, but I hate to practice. I have found the more I play, I do get better but I only improve to a degree. If I really want to lower my handicap, I have to commit to practice. But you know what, I have found I don’t really love golf that much to commit the kind of time it might take to see the results I would like.
Jesus makes an amazing statement in Matthew 6:1 when He starts off by saying “Beware when you practice righteousness…”. The implication is it would be good for us if we were practicing righteousness. These two words don’t seem to go together at first blush. As a follow of Jesus, I am righteous because of His death and resurrection. As I grow in Him and learn to be His disciple, it is the work of the Holy Spirit living in me who begins to produce righteousness in my life. The idea of practice just sounds wrong. Maybe part of me has an aversion to practice because it can tend to be boring, monotonous, and hard work. I don’t really want to think of gaining righteousness under those terms!
Why Practice Righteousness
Dallas Willard in his book, The Divine Conspiracy, provides two compelling reasons for practicing righteousness:
- The first primary objective is to bring apprentices to the point where they dearly love and constantly delight in that “heavenly Father” made real to earth in Jesus and are quite certain that there is no “catch,” no limit, to the goodness of his intentions or to his power to carry them out.
- The second primary objective is to remove our automatic responses against the kingdom of God, to free the apprentices of domination, of “enslavement” (John 8:34; Rom. 6:6), to their old habitual patterns of thought, feeling, and action.
To develop a skill we need a good teacher. In our training in righteousness we have the master teacher:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me
However, I can have the best teacher but if I do not practice, I will not see growth. I can hire the best golf instructor in the world and get world-class lessons, but if I do not commit to practice what I am learning, it will be of little use. To really love and delight in God, I must spend time with the Master, learning from Him and then practicing disciplines which foster that relationship. And the good news, these practices are not monotonous and boring. Hard work, at times, yes.
I also see automatic responses in my life that do not reflect the righteousness that Jesus describes in the kingdom of God. In Matthew 5, Jesus highlights several aspects of what the kingdom of God is like and what we tend to do living in the kingdom of this world.
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Kingdom of this World |
Kingdom of God |
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Anger |
Love |
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Lust |
Purity/Fidelity |
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Divorce |
Marital commitment |
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Lies/Deception(Oaths) |
Truth and Integrity |
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Retaliation |
Forgiveness/loving response |
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Hate enemies |
Love enemies |
Those worldly automatic responses are so natural! It takes practice to retrain and learn the ways of the kingdom.
Jeremiah 29:13 helps provide a window into the importance of practice: “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” Practicing righteousness is a practical way of seeking and searching for God with all our hearts. The amazing promise is when we do, we find Him. And as we find Him, we learn to become more like Him and our responses begin to automatically reflect righteousness.
Practice Examples
It’s a new month and I have been incorporating some new practices in my journey with the Renovaré Institute. One thing that has been helpful for me is to view practices as opportunities to spend time with God and be open to what He wants to show me rather than a checklist of things I need to do. Also, I am trying to be less rigid and legalistic about practices. Some practices I tend to use regularly and yet others I use intermittently as a way to keep practice time fresh.
One of the outcomes I am finding to practice is though there are set times when I do some practices, overall it is becoming more of a way of life where I am finding my heart drawn more naturally to Him throughout the day. If I had not been practicing, I am certain my heart would be in a much different place. Below are some of the practices we are encouraged to look at this month:
- When you wake up: begin each day as you get out of bed choosing to praise the Lord for the new day. A prayer that has become very meaningful to me is a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer:
Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, You have brought me in safety to this new day. Preserve me by your mighty power, that I may not fall into sin nor be overcome by adversity; but in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
- Soon after waking: spend 5-10 minutes on your knees in the presence of God. Share any fears or concerns you have for the day and ask God to help you experience His loving presence throughout the day. In the quiet of the moment, receive the blessing and goodness of God over you.
- As things come up: as you go about your day, look for God in whatever situation or relationship you are in. Maybe you are in line at the grocery store or you are in a big meeting at work. Try to see God in every situation and look to see what He might be up to.
- Take a Break Every 2-3 hours: Isn’t it amazing sometimes how quickly a day can go by? I know there are many times that I can be heads down on a task and get so focused I rarely come up for air! This isn’t a very good approach because in those moments often my mind is far away from God. I really do desire to seek Him, so practicing this is important. I am looking forward to being diligent in taking breaks every 2-3 hours this month. The breaks don’t have to be long, maybe just 5-10 minutes, but in those breaks I can readjust my focus and draw near to God. One way I plan to do this is to get up and walk outside and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.
- End of Day Review: I hope to write a separate blog soon on this topic, but I love this practice. This is a great way to wind down from the day. This only needs to take 10-15 minutes, but in this time you want to focus on a few things. Try to think through your day in chronological order as best as you can remember:
- Look for things in your day to be thankful for
- Were there any struggles, stresses, emotions, or failures you experienced
- If you became of any sin, confess it. Cast whatever care you may have identified to God in prayer. Let Him help you release and let go of it.
Practice
So, what do you think? Is there anything in this list that you feel drawn to try? Remember, the goal is to learn to constantly delight in the love of the Father and to experience freedom from responses that hinder our relationship with God and others. The goal isn’t to jam pack our day with a laundry list of “to dos”. I pray for you and me as we continue to practice righteousness that we will see our hearts receiving God’s love more deeply and turning more naturally to walk in the ways of the Kingdom.
