We are a culture that values the immediate, the fast, and the rapid. I want my coffee within a minute, my burger in two, and my customer service call to be answered stat. A friend of mine, Ben, used a phrase as he told me the story of his spiritual journey. The earliest stage he called “trust and obey,” which mostly meant trying to stay out of trouble and do as he was told (by his parents, the church, and the pastor). A second stage had to do with “knowing more,” which, for him, meant more informational knowledge—cognitive knowing where “being right” was more important than being righteous. But he used a phrase that captivated my imagination: “faithful repetition,” which, in his experience, meant mostly rote memorization or surface-level intellectual learning. I’d like to reclaim that phrase in a more positive view.
Faithful repetition
A principle in Old Testament studies states, “What is important to God gets repeated in biblical texts.” Faithful repetition can be trivialized to memorization or “mindlessly repeating what others say,” but it can also be a gateway to some of scripture’s most generative teachings. Faithful is the adjective that modifies the noun repetition. Repetition can be unfaithful, as we repeat old or bad patterns; faithful repetition is altogether different.
Someone has said that “repetition is the mother of all learning.” It’s how we learn a language as infants or immigrants to a new country; it’s how athletes learn the skills of their sport, artists their craft, or doctors their careers. The Apostle Paul said it this way in his letter to the church in Philippi, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”[1]
Today, I’d like to offer a lexicon of faithful repetition.
- Pray without ceasing.[2] i.e., show up for prayer again tomorrow.
- When you fall, get up again; when your friend falls, forgive again. [3]
- “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Devotion requires faithful repetition.[4]
- “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” [5] To remain is an intention: I intend to stay but not just one and done; to remain requires repetition.
- “Evening, morning, and noon, I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.” [6] Daily prayer requires repetition.
- “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise…”[7] Worship requires repetition.
- “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning, I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” [8] Waiting is an act of repetition, i.e., I don’t quit, I don’t stop, I don’t turn away…I wait expectantly.
- “We have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord…”[9] Intercessory prayer (for others) requires repetition, just as being “filled” doesn’t happen with one splash of prayer. Growth requires repetition.
We’re formed in our routines.
And we could go on and on. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”[10]
So, I’ll repeat myself, and pun intended: walking, being rooted, being established, and abounding—requires faithful repetition. We’re formed in our routines.
Practice: Draw up a calendar of your most repeated spiritual practices. After today’s blog, do you have any new ideas in mind?
[1] Philippians 3:14
[2] I Thessalonians 5:17
[3] Matthew 18:21-22
[4] Acts 2:42
[5] John 15:7
[6] Ps 55:17
[7] Heb 13:15
[8] Ps 5:3
[9] Colossians 1:9
[10] Colossians 2:6-7