Jeff Adams

There’s a lot to be said for day-to-day consistency. The longer and more consistently we work at anything, the better we get and the more we understand. But, this is assuming that we are going at it in the right way. Yesterday’s quote was from Vince Lombardi. “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

Yesterday, I was kicking around the growth elements of grace and truth. We need them both, and we need all of both of them. But, we also need time. Time is what I want to talk about.

A musician who practices hours each day will continue to grow and improve as long as she is practicing in the right way. If you ever learned to play an instrument, you might remember playing endless scales and arpeggios. A master musician still plays scales and arpeggios after decades of consistent practice and performance, but there is a backlog, buildup, whatever you want to call it – a foundation of repertoire, technique, skill and experience.

A concert pianist may have played Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto” many times.  He may spend as much or more time practicing every day as the years roll on, but the emphasis is different. If a performance of the Beethoven concerto is coming up, he doesn’t have to learn the score. That part is done. The emphasis now is on nuance, style, experience, interpretation and execution. There is a cumulative effect of investing years in consistent good practice.

I have a watch that is powered by light. Every time it is exposed to light it is able to convert a small portion of that energy into fuel to power my watch. It is impossible to overcharge the watch. The energy just keeps accumulating. With a full charge, the watch can sit in a dark drawer for almost a year and still keeps ticking – the cumulative effect.

Watchman Nee was a Chinese pastor imprisoned for decades under the communist government that came to power after the Second World War. He had an amazing teaching gift, and his ministry was a blessing and encouragement to Chinese believers during the first half of the twentieth century. Many of his outlines and sermon transcriptions have been put into book form and continue to bless believers everywhere.

Someone once asked Brother Nee how long it took to properly prepare a sermon. The young seminarian who asked the question was imagining that it would take maybe eight or ten hours of sermon preparation each week. Nee paused, thoughtfully considered his response before opening his mouth and said (paraphrasing), “Ten. No, make that twenty. I think it takes about twenty years to prepare a proper sermon.”

He was thinking of the cumulative effect.

Many years ago when I would prepare a study of a certain book of the Bible, it would take a great deal of time to research the background, history and context of the book. Over the years I have followed that procedure on several occasions for every book in the Bible. I do NOT know it all and still seek out all the information I can find on a book before teaching it, but there is a certain cumulative effect that comes from having studied the Bible diligently for over 40 years. My focus is different. I already have a great deal of information about the background, history and context, but now  I see things I never saw before. I have time to investigate things I never even thought of before.

Next year I am going to do a study I did twenty years ago on Psalm 119. I even wrote a book! I put a great deal of effort and study into that series and book on Psalm 119. I’m sure I will put in many hours of study each week as I prepare to teach it again this coming year. But, this time it will be different. The world has changed. I have changed. I already have a cumulative data base, a foundation of knowledge on Psalm 119. I can’t wait to see things I have never seen before!

We are easily discouraged when we do something for a few days or weeks and seemingly see no tangible result. Let me encourage you to keep on meeting with God in the scriptures every day, day after day, year after year. If you do this with the right heart and depending on his power alone, something is happening. There is a cumulative effect that is welling up inside of you and gaining momentum that one day will not easily be stopped! Don’t lose heart! Keep on going! The cumulative effect is real.