Perseverance

The Message sums up the need for continuing with faithfulness in the spiritual disciplines so well for me.  It reads in Galatians 6:7-10 like this: "Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.  The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others - ignoring God! - harvests a crop of weeds.  All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvest a crop of real life, eternal life. So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good.  At the right time we will harvest a good crop if  we don't give up, or quit.  Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith."  

If we want to harvest godliness we have to put in the work.  We can't expect to harvest great impact in the eternal kingdom when we are consumed by the natural. I am starting a missions organization in Houston and we are focused on helping people understand that SOME day is never going to get here.  You can't wait to begin when life is convenient or easy.  You can't put off the discipline till next week while you are too busy this week.  Life gets more busy not less.

While this seems so simple it is hard to live out.  After all things that belong to the temporal realm have to be done.  My house needs to be clean, my children fed and clothed, and God gave me a job that he expects me to do as unto him.  So where do you start to build your life around spiritual disciplines.  You start where you are.  With one thing a day.  You don't have to be good at everything all at once.  To someone not involved in any spiritual discipline some is more than nothing.  Just like physical exercise you have to start moving. It really can be simple - A verse of the day in your email or on your smart phone.  A prayer time instead of a water cooler chat.  God is willing to take what we are able to scrimp together and turn it into power and beauty.  The widow gave her two mites even though it was all she had.  If all you have is your commute - then pray the whole way.  If all you have is your lunch hour - then isolate yourself and spend time alone with God at that moment.  Read his word instead of the news website, work with worship on your radio, or keep some note cards at your desk and drop him a line everyday.  

But be ready to realize that the more of God you put in your heart, the more godliness in your life, the harder it will be to keep it up.  Satan doesn't want you to plant and harvest.  He doesn't want you to build up the saints around you.  He doesn't want prayer happening in the workplace or family unit.  And you are going to get tired.  But you have to continue to be steady.  Even if you step back, or slow down, even if you only get two minutes instead of twenty or an hour, keep pressing in.  Don't let your fatigue capture you joy or your victory.  "Be confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil 1:6, NKJV).

I have to be honest being disciplined in my spiritual life has been hit and miss for me since I became a mom but God is  putting a light in my life that is new and fresh.  I am finding that my life goes better when my lunch hour is spent with my bible or a Christian book.  My work is smoother when the other believers at my job meet for 5 minutes of prayer over the building each day.  There are so many ways to integrate God into our daily routine.  And in reality I think that is what he wants anyway.  A quiet time each morning or night is great but not if you compartmentalize that time with God away from the rest of your life.  My life is to be a direct reflection of Him.  If  I only get his light at one point each day I grow dim in my reflection.  But when I carry Him with me everywhere, then I can create a reflection worthy of his glory.  And after all that is what I am all about - my story for his glory.