The Power of Practice: How Consistent Effort Leads to Completion

What If Practice Makes Completion?

Hey everybody, Pastor Logan here. We've been going through this series on the spirit of compassion at New Day, and something I said the other day really got me thinking, and I wanted to share it with you all.

We all know that saying, "practice makes perfect". Some folks have even upped the ante to "perfect practice makes perfect". But this week, I thought, what if practice doesn't make perfect, but what if practice makes completion?

Think about that for a minute. Even if we practice and practice, we might not get it perfectly right. Even perfect practice might not lead to absolute perfection. But I truly believe that the act of practicing, especially when it comes to our faith and showing compassion, helps us to complete what we've started. You might not get compassion "textbook" correct, but you're doing it, you're getting more done.

And this is so important because the Bible tells us that in the end times, the love of many will grow cold. I don't want that to be us, New Day. Our love should be vibrant, robust, and visible. It should touch lives and be real. It's easy to get caught up in callousness, to the point where we stop feeling and are no longer affected by the things we see. That's not a good place to be. Things we see should affect us and move us to action.

Now, let's be clear, compassion isn't about abandoning truth for feelings of pity. We don't want to enable harmful situations or be manipulated. As believers, we need to be led by our spirit to understand the best way to help someone we have pity for. It's about finding the best way to show compassion. Personally, I'd rather err on the side of doing something and being a blessing than doing nothing, unless the Spirit leads me otherwise. If we're going to fall, let's fall forward.

Scripture is so clear on this. In 1 John 3:16-20, it says that we know real love because Jesus gave up his life for us, and so we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. It asks a powerful question: if someone has enough and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion, how can God's love be in that person?. It's not enough to just say we love each other; we need to show it through our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth.

And remember Matthew 25:37-40? When we help "the least of these my brothers and sisters," we are doing it for Him. I sometimes think, "What if it were my boy? What if it were my daughter?". That really pulls at your heartstrings, doesn't it? Wouldn't you want someone to help them if they were stranded or in need?. We should care about the suffering around us, whether it's at the border or in our own community. People aren't leaving their homes and going through dangerous situations because things are good back home. Regardless of the laws and rules, there are people who are hurting, there are children involved. Some conservative women who even voted for our president went to the border and said it was different when they saw the faces and young mothers. That's where the church should live and thrive – showing compassion no matter what the regulations are. Our kingdom heart should always dictate how we love and act. We are in this world, but not of it, and we're here to make a difference.

God even tells his own people in Leviticus 19:33-34: "Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native-born Israelites. Love them as you love yourself, remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt.". Most of us came from somewhere else. The rules and laws can be what they are, but that shouldn't stop us from showing compassion to those who come from another country. While they are here, we can love on them.

And then there's Leviticus 23:22: "When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of the field and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.". It amazes me how some Christians can get upset about helping people. I was in a meeting recently talking about love, just love, and the vast majority of the room made no comment. What has happened to us that a message on love gets suppressed?. We shouldn't use everything on ourselves but leave something for others to glean from.

How many of us have closets full of nice clothes and shoes we barely wear while others have nothing?.

On that note, I want to let you all know that two Wednesdays from now, we're going to show a video called "Sound of Hope". It's about foster care, and I really want us to develop a heart for this because I believe there are ways we can help those in need of foster care and support those who are currently fostering. It might not be that everyone is called to foster, but there are other ways we can support them. We need to have the information so God can get a hold of our hearts. There are so many displaced children, and when you do it to the least of these, you do it unto Him. I think we can practice better and really affect some lives positively. This movie is about a church that took on foster care as the heart of God.

Ultimately, compassion isn't a law; it's about our hearts. It's a desire to help and make a real impact in our community so that if our church were to disappear, people would know we had been here and that we had shown the love of Christ. Let's not close up our compassion, let's not hoard it, but let's leave some out there for others to glean from. Let's practice compassion until it becomes a deeply ingrained part of who we are, completing the work God has started in us.