I spend hours watching tutorials and reading up on my craft, trying the various techniques out (my kids are sick of being used as models) and ironing out the mistakes I know I made the last time I done any job.
Imagine if i just turned up and done my practice at someone's wedding, trying to figure out off camera flash or the best way to pose the couple as the day went on; just hoping for the best?
Or imagine a concert pianist arriving to the concert and having not practiced his piece at all in the months running up to it - a lot of mistakes would be made.
Yet we come to the Christian life like that; we fail to spend time with Christ in His Word and in prayer, except for when we're asked to do a sunday school lesson or give some talk. We may turn to it when we are facing difficulties but never between times. Rarely do we just long for a daily experience with Christ and seek it unless there's some other reason, like trials, failure, guilt or being asked about something.
Jesus Said:
“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”(Matthew 13:52 ESV)
For us to live the Christian life we must be 'trained' and we must have old and new experiences in the Word.
Let us constantly be in it, drinking deeply remembering the things we learned about Jesus last year as well as those today...
