Training or Trying

Rupert Ward continues the Dust: the art of follower-ship series with a talk entitled ‘Training or Trying’. Our scripture this week is 1 Corinthians 9 v24-27. Have you ever tried running a marathon without training? How about sitting down at a piano and knocking out some Mozart or Coldplay without practice? Rupert explains that following Jesus takes effort, practise and patience. To run a race, we would have to build up our stamina with training over weeks and months. Likewise, to play the piano well, hours of practise is required over years. God’s grace is not opposed to action and effort, there is nothing we can do to stop Him loving us. We have to put the time and effort in, to train, to transform and become like Jesus.

Here is a PDF document with a summary of the talk, with some further resources and ways in which we could put this into practice.