Daily Devotionals by Ardith Keef

      We had a symphony concert tonight that was amazing.
     A tiny Japanese woman came out on stage in a brilliant blue, conservatively cut sleeveless dress and played the Brahms violin concerto like most of us have never heard before. 
     In the rehearsal, I was again struck by the amount of sheer repetitive labor that goes into a brilliant musical performance. To be musically free, the performer must do hours and hours of grueling but rewarding repeating of difficult passages with a metronome.
     Young students do not want to go through that process. tThey always say "the metronome messes me up!" But the fact is, the metronome is perfect, and the student is playing the notes unevenly.
     We are like that. We feel restricted by the standard of holiness that is for our own good. We are pulled by the flesh away from the thing that reminds us that we are not measuring up.
     The precious difference between the young student of music and the Christian soldier, is that the believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit. That enables the Christian to step away from comparison with imperfection, and gaze upon the Lover of His Soul.
     Then, there is work. A Christian ought to memorize (I do it daily, but it is labor. I have never memorized easily.) A Christian must learn to pray in a way that is effective and gets things done. A believer must feed the hungry and dress the naked.
     A believer must love, and if there is no love in his heart, he must labor in prayer until there is love.
     We are an undisciplined generation of slackards, and we wonder why there is no glory!
     When we submit to heaven's discipline, we see Jesus!