The Weekly Epistle 6/9/21

“Practice makes perfect.”  Is that true?  If I repeatedly do a certain skill, then does that mean I will improve on that skill?  When one of the basketball players I am coaching wants to improve their shooting and practices every day by taking 50 shots twice a day will she attain her goal?  Will she get better at shooting?  Not necessarily.  
 
Improvement would assume they are practicing the right things, the right way.  If that player’s form were off no amount of repeating a bad shot technique would make her a better shooter.  On the contrary, she would actually form a bad habit that would make her shot worse.
 
I think you know where I am going with this.  What kind of habits are we forming in our lives?  What disciplines are we practicing?  Allow me to return to basketball for just a minute longer.  What any player (and this translates into any skill) is hoping to achieve by practicing the right things, the right way, is that those habits become a part of who they are.  That after a while, they become so woven into their play on the court that they do it almost without thinking about it.  
 
Isn’t that how it works with forming spiritual habits?  That they become a part of who we are, so that more instinctively we pray. They are woven so deeply into the rhythm of our lives that they carry us in those times when we are struggling.  What kind of habits are you forming in your life that move you closer to Him?  It might be journaling or fasting or practicing solitude or regular Bible reading and prayer or meditating or memorizing scripture.  
 
It might be meeting together with your church family for edification.  Have you thought of that as a spiritual habit?  In the book of Hebrews, it says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).  Why is meeting together so important?  Several answers for that.  But in that Hebrews passage it is for the purpose of spurring one another on toward love and good deeds.
 
But did you notice, we can actually get out of the habit of meeting together.  One thing the pandemic taught us is that we don’t have to meet in the church to be the church.  That is the plus side.  We were able to attend Sunday worship without leaving our homes.  
 
The downside to that, is it meant that we can attend Sunday worship service without leaving our homes.  I have talked to other pastors, and they too have seen that some people in their church are getting out of the habit of meeting together.  I want to spur you on toward love and good deeds.  My heart goes out to those who may be forming the habit of not attending.  In love, I want to extend this invitation: “You are needed here.  You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”  (Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
 
We do need every part of the body.  As people have returned, my heart has been blessed to overflowing.  It was so encouraging to see 30 men at the men’s breakfast this past week.  It was a great time of fellowship.  The food was awesome!  Men, be on the lookout for two four-week studies coming up- one in July on mentoring and one in August on how to study the Bible.  
 
Don’t forget, church, prayer 30 is tonight (6/9) from 7:00-7:30 in the gym parking lot.  Praying together is one habit worth forming at EBC.  Hope to see you soon!
 
Blessings, Pastor Brian