The Power of Practice and Repetition

In high school I enrolled in a personal typing class, probably one of the most practical classes I ever took. More than 50 years later, I’m still typing almost every day. The computer keyboards I use today are a far cry from the manual typewriters I learned on, but the keys are still located in the same places.

 

I remember the repetitive exercises for learning where the keys are without looking. Typing “ASDF-space” ad infinitum seemed boring at the time, but now I appreciate the value of the daily practice and repetition. When I could successfully type, “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” – using all the letters of the alphabet without glancing at the keyboard – I felt I had achieved something.

Those typing skills assisted me through my last years of high school, five years of college and grad school, and prepared me for a long and varied career in journalism and writing. Not to brag, but after countless hours of fingers tapping keys, I can type faster than many administrative assistants. When you’re writing a newspaper article on a tight deadline, it helps not being a slouch at the keyboard.

 

The interesting thing is, while it took much tedious effort and time to learn where the individual keys are, today I couldn’t tell you where a specific key is without looking. My fingers, however, know exactly where each key is. It’s called “muscle memory,” training acquired through many hours of practice and repetition. It’s simply doing the same thing over and over and over until it becomes second nature. 

 

This is true for athletes, musicians, drivers, surgeons, CPAs and just about any other discipline. Whatever skill sets they need, the more they put them into use the more proficient they become. The combination of time, practice and repetition are indispensable for gaining competence at virtually every pursuit we could imagine. What about spiritual growth and maturity?

 

It seems to me that appropriating the power of practice and repetition is just as crucial for learning to become fruitful followers of Jesus – “Christ’s ambassadors” as 2 Corinthians 5:20 terms it. Living a life of faith doesn’t come naturally; it demands determination, consistency, and repeated practice day after day. In effect, developing spiritual “muscle memory.”

 

This isn’t to gain salvation, which the Bible says is an unconditional gift of God’s love, mercy and grace – “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy…” (Titus 3:5). We can add nothing to Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross. However, we do participate in what theologians call sanctification, the lifelong process of becoming more and more like Christ.

 

Romans 12:2 admonishes us, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.” The term “transformed” comes from the same Greek word that gives us the word “metamorphosis.” 

 

In this context it means we should outwardly be showing more and more the changes that God through His Spirit is bringing about in our inner persons. Just as a caterpillar doesn’t transform into a butterfly instantaneously, Christlike character only develops in us over time, practicing day after day the principles and truths the Lord has revealed through His Word.

 

We see this clearly expressed in Philippians 2:12-13, in which the apostle Paul admonished believers in ancient Philippi to “continue to work our your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” This doesn’t mean working for our salvation, but working out – almost like squeezing a sponge – what God has been working into us.

 

As I’ve learned, it’s one thing to participate in a worship service or attend a Christian conference and leave feeling inspired. It’s quite another to engage in the hard work, which is often tedious and repetitive, to put into practice and sustain what the Lord has been teaching us.

 

Writing to his protégé, Timothy, Paul urged him, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Again, the apostle Paul wasn’t challenging Timothy to earn God’s approval, but to demonstrate his understanding of what the Scriptures teach and live out those precepts in practical, everyday ways.

 

How do we do this? What are steps we can practice and repeat so we can “present ourselves approved to God”? Those are questions to address at another time. But something you can ponder for yourself.