A few years ago, I was invited to watch an NFL practice. Fascinating is too bland to describe what I saw.
Before the practice I was escorted to the cafeteria, where the linemen had a different diet than the quarterbacks. Why? Because the two positions have different demands on the body. Then off to the weight room where different weights were used by different players. The quarterback doesn’t need to bench press 400 pounds, but the linemen do. The world record for the bench press is 1400 pounds. I can barely do half that.
The locker room is sprayed down after every practice to eliminate any germs that might cause a player to get sick on game day. Why does the NFL go through such meticulous care? Because games are won and lost by inches. Rest, diet, and weights help cut feet into inches and into half inches. And games depend on fractions of an inch. Wrong diet and you lose the game. They are, in fact, closing the gap.
However, in the Christian world we should be equally determined to close the spiritual gap. The new believer goes to church once a week. Soon they begin to attend a mid-week bible study. This hunger for the Word leads to daily devotions, which gives birth to meditation and prayer. Such maturity becomes a habit in which God is foremost in their thoughts. Jesus closed the gap perfectly because He always did what the Father told Him to do. People get braces to close the gap in their teeth. The Word, meditation, prayer, and fellowship are the spiritual braces for the believer. What does your gap look like?