Hitting The Target.
Making your faith second nature.
“Shooting is a perishable Skill.”
As firearms instructor, I know that shooting is a skill that must be practiced or you will lose it.
There are many things that go in proper technique to get the bullet to hit the bullseye. Grip, trigger press, and sight alignment.
At my experience level, I don’t think about these individual things anymore when I shoot, its just “second nature.”
Because of this, when teaching new students it can be difficult slow down and explain the importance of each step.
It’s kind of like a pro golfer teaching someone to swing a club step by step when they can do it in one natural movement.
While these mechanics are so simple to me, I often forget this when I see a student fumble and awkwardly try to properly hold a handgun.
When I first started firearms training in the police academy, I had to make sure I was doing each step right. “Ok..stance, grip…draw, align sights, breath, squeeze trigger.”
A lot of times the longer I thought about each process the more I would mess up.
The longer you take to press that trigger and hold the sights steady; the more fatigued mentally and physically you become and guess what…you miss.
It’s also very common to break your sight picture and lose focus on your sights.
Our faith life is like target practice. There are many things we need to do to try to live a Godly life. Of course outside of accepting Jesus, none of these things are actually required for salvation, but ultimately our goal should accuracy.
We don’t go to range with the goal of just hitting the paper and wasting ammo. We want to hit the center of the target.
The moment you accepted Jesus into your life you were saved, but why stop there, why not hone your skills and improve your aim? And your aim should be Christ.
Colossians 3:2 (ESV) says
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Ephesians 5:1 says we have to be “imitators of God.”
But how often do we attempt to hit the target in our faith but break our sight by looking at things of the world?
Or maybe we are just overthinking one or more parts of our faith and becoming too fatigued in our walk with Christ.
So how do we make our faith become more natural?
Well…like any of sport…practice.
But despite what you have been told, “practice doesn’t make perfect,” instead “practice makes progress.”
Perfection is a religious lie. Perfection will always be meet in failure and disappointment.
Romans 3:23 ESV reminds us
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
And Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV says “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
So why then does Matthew 5:48 ESV say:
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Well…the actual greek word for perfect in this scripture is “teleios” which really means mature, complete, or full grown (Strongs 5046)
Or one could say “practiced.”
But like any skill, our faith is perishable. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
So how do we practice our faith?
We do this putting God first and…well last.
Our lives should begin and end with God. Through prayer and scripture. This way, we “store” God’s word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11 ESV).
Then in those moments when we sin or become tempted to, we remember God’s word. And yes, this takes practice, and it’s something that if we do daily it will become second nature.