by Rev. Rob Howlett - Minister
As a musician I am often told, ‘it must be wonderful to have such a natural gift of playing the piano’. The reality is in fact quite different. Instead of a natural gift that just happened over night, it has taken hours and hours (and hours) of hard practice and detailed study of music theory to achieve the level of competency I have in playing the piano (which still includes plenty of bum-notes and wrong chords at the most important times!).
To play the piano, or any musical instrument, requires hard work, dedication, commitment, and a love of the instrument and of music. The more time one spends studying, learning, and practising, the more confident one becomes in their competency and ability to play their musical instrument.
Perhaps this is true of our faith and Christian discipleship too, the more time we spend studying, learning, and practising our faith, the more confident we will become. It is clear from Scripture that the disciples, when they first met Jesus, were a slightly incompetent bunch, often misunderstanding their teacher and his mission, often getting things wrong, and often not feeling confident in their faith.
As an aside, this portrayal of the disciples, in my opinion, is captured so well in the series ‘The Chosen’, currently available with an Amazon Prime subscription. Simon Peter and his temper and ability to completely misunderstand, Thomas and his doubts, John and Andrew jostling for position and status, etc. etc (all characteristics I can certainly relate to). However, the more time the disciples spent in the presence of Jesus and studying Scripture, the more confident and competent they grew.
During this period of Lent and as we prepare to celebrate Easter, my encouragement for us all is to spend more time with Jesus through prayer, fasting, worship, and reading and studying Scripture. Our friends at LICC have produced a forty-day Bible reading plan that I encourage us all to follow, which will help us to develop our confidence through competency in our Christian faith.
To follow this devotional journey and receive daily emails from LICC, register at www.licc.org.uk/confidence or via the YouVersion app by searching ‘Licc confidence’. Alternatively, printed copies will be available from church.
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