show up

A common theme in the first few posts in this blog was what I was learning from my time in the word each day. I love the stories of the Old Testament and find lots of little nuggets of wisdom therein.  I had very much been enjoying my time with the Israelites but…

Well, it seems as if the Israelites hit the desert and so did I. The difference is my desert has the title Leviticus and apparently at least the first several chapters of Numbers as well.

Now I’m not saying Leviticus is bad. It’s simply a MUCH dryer read than say the ten plagues or the Red Sea.

I was thinking about it this morning as I drove to work after STRUGGLING through my quiet time again this morning.


“Why Lord, when I am just at the beginning of this particular season of focus and discipline would you lead me to a reading plan that gets me stuck in such a DULL place?” 

I realized very quickly that the answer was also in the question.
Focus.
Discipline.
While there may be a few pearls of wisdom to be gleaned from these sections of scripture, I don’t think that is what the Lord was trying to teach me at all. I think his purpose for this season in the “desert” was to teach me the importance of “showing up.”

In anything you attempt to do in this life, showing up is half the battle.

If I am expecting to get something out of the Word of God, it will never happen is I don’t show up. Not every time I dive in will give me the result I desire but I MUST keep going back. The enemy loves to bog us down by boredom, lack of results, whatever he possibly can to make us stop trying.

The same thing goes for running. I shared before that I plan to run a marathon. This will never happen if I don’t put in the work to train everyday. If I want the result I have to show up.

The same goes for a lifestyle of healthy eating. How many of us are guilty of “trying” really hard for a week and getting on the scale and seeing no results. Sometimes worse yet we step on the scale and have GAINED weight even after we passed over the EPIC donuts that were in the staff lounge at work.

I promise that something like this happened to me not long ago and it BROKE me.

Real tears ya’ll.

I felt utterly hopeless.

That’s exactly what the enemy wants.

He wants to convince us that there is no point in trying. He wants us to believe the Word of God is too dull and hard to understand. He wants us to think that we are just tossing empty prayers up at the sky and they are just floating there unanswered. He wants to make us completely sure that no matter how many miles we run, zumba classes we attend, kale salads we eat, we will NEVER achieve the physical results we want. The list goes on and on and on. Those are just a few tiny examples.

But here’s the thing the Lord has made us more than conquerors. The enemy only has as much victory as we let him have in the moment because in the long game he is already defeated.

So even though he will knock you down…

Even though the scale says the same number you HATE seeing or you are stuck in a desert or Leviticus in your life…

DON’T GIVE UP…


Show. Up.    :)

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