Isaiah 28:10
“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
I once heard the story of a young pastor who came to his first assignment. Shortly after his arrival he moved the piano from one side of the church to the other. His action caused such an uproar he was forced to resign.
Some years later he returned to visit that same church and, much to his surprise, he saw the piano located where he had wanted to move it. He asked the new pastor how he had managed to have it relocated. The answer shocked him: “An inch a week!”
Many of us have heard the expression, “It’s a cinch by the inch, but it’s hard by the yard.” I am not sure how those of you using the metric system may be able to have a similar rhyme, but the idea is there regardless.
A gradual approach can be used in a positive context as well as a negative one. We can gradually make compromises that will lead us farther away from God’s pattern of righteousness, or we can gradually grow in grace and in the knowledge of God’s plan and purpose for our life. The answer is being disciplined to study God’s word and keep our prayer life active.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil