Training vs. Trying

Often our best answer to grow spiritually is to try harder.  We would think it crazy if someone who had never played an instrument stepped on stage trying to play a difficult piece and kept saying I will try harder.  The audience would be waiting for hours.  Dallas Willard says the Disciplines simply help us do things we cannot do by willpower alone.  Will power or trying harder in the moment will not help someone be able play a musical instrument.  It takes years of practice to master an instrument.  

Dallas Willard calls this the easy yoke. We try to be like Christ in the moment with more will power and a try harder attitude. Instead of living the kind of live Jesus lived. One of solitude, fasting, and prayer.

Donald Whitney says, “The disciplines produce freedom. Freedom to perform in the moment.”