| JoyUs Musing Edition #08-11 |
Have you ever started a project or made a decision to change a bad and ungodly habit for a godly one - only to
flat out fail?
Boy, I have!
I heard a minister I trust with my life make the statement that God told her that if she would pray in the Spirit an
hour every morning, all things would go well for her. Well, as my husband would say, I jumped on that like a bird
on a June bug. If God said things will go well - why on earth wouldn't I obey, too???
I knew enough not to jump in with the hour right off but to take it in smaller increments. Start with 5-10 minutes
and then add 5 minutes until I was up to an hour. It was a GREAT plan.
So I began and... failed. I thought, "I quit, this is too hard." Then that inner prompting would begin again to pray
an hour each morning. I would again go a few days, then I'd hit a snag. Something would come up to interrupt
the flow.
I can tell you I fell asleep praying a few times. And I can tell you that in the argument with my flesh to hit the
snooze button repeatedly, my flesh won and we'll leave it at that.
So what do you do if you fail? Say, "Man, these spiritual things are just too hard" or "I must not have been called
to do this!"? NOPE - you train your flesh to obey. You are a Spirit, you live in a body and you have a soul (the
mind, will and emotions). Your body and soul will gang up on you trying to keep you from forcing them to obey.
If you ever smoked cigarettes, you might remember your very first puff - that first inhalation. Your lungs freaked
out and said, "What the heck is this? STOP THAT. We don't like this and we will cough and hack until you stop
putting that smoke in us!"
So what did you do? You trained your lungs to accept the smoke until you no longer coughed. You trained them
by continuing to smoke, forcing them to obey.
Our "flesh" is the same way. If you want to make it obey you whether in spiritual matters (such as getting up early
to pray in the Spirit each morning) or physical matters (such as making it exercise), you apply the same principle
- you train it.
When the alarm goes off and your flesh says, "Hey, let's sleep in 9 more minutes - hit that snooze button" you
train it by saying, "No, we are going to get up right now and not be tempted to oversleep." If you blow it and hit
the snooze button, just repent, forgive yourself and work on it again the next morning. Just keep going on and
doing it; never quit. Eventually your body will obey you and you will get up for that hour.
Same thing with that treadmill! You head into the exercise room and before you even get there, your flesh says,
'HEY! LOOK ! A magazine you haven't read yet. See it? It's right over there on the coffee table. Let's pick it up
and thumb thru it before you get on the treadmill. It will only take a minute!"
You HAVE to say, "No, body, we're going in there and getting on that treadmill right now." If you do pick up the
magazine and read until you forget about the treadmill, repent, forgive yourself, and begin again the next day.
Just keep going on and doing it; never quit. Eventually, your body will obey you (even if it does keep trying to
trick you) and you will walk on the treadmill faithfully.
You have His Word on it!
Scripture References:
1 Thess. 5:23
1 Timothy 4:7
Hebrews 5:14; 12:11
The word "exercise" means "to train"
Inspiration Copyright © 2008 Nan C Loyd
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
flat out fail?
Boy, I have!
I heard a minister I trust with my life make the statement that God told her that if she would pray in the Spirit an
hour every morning, all things would go well for her. Well, as my husband would say, I jumped on that like a bird
on a June bug. If God said things will go well - why on earth wouldn't I obey, too???
I knew enough not to jump in with the hour right off but to take it in smaller increments. Start with 5-10 minutes
and then add 5 minutes until I was up to an hour. It was a GREAT plan.
So I began and... failed. I thought, "I quit, this is too hard." Then that inner prompting would begin again to pray
an hour each morning. I would again go a few days, then I'd hit a snag. Something would come up to interrupt
the flow.
I can tell you I fell asleep praying a few times. And I can tell you that in the argument with my flesh to hit the
snooze button repeatedly, my flesh won and we'll leave it at that.
So what do you do if you fail? Say, "Man, these spiritual things are just too hard" or "I must not have been called
to do this!"? NOPE - you train your flesh to obey. You are a Spirit, you live in a body and you have a soul (the
mind, will and emotions). Your body and soul will gang up on you trying to keep you from forcing them to obey.
If you ever smoked cigarettes, you might remember your very first puff - that first inhalation. Your lungs freaked
out and said, "What the heck is this? STOP THAT. We don't like this and we will cough and hack until you stop
putting that smoke in us!"
So what did you do? You trained your lungs to accept the smoke until you no longer coughed. You trained them
by continuing to smoke, forcing them to obey.
Our "flesh" is the same way. If you want to make it obey you whether in spiritual matters (such as getting up early
to pray in the Spirit each morning) or physical matters (such as making it exercise), you apply the same principle
- you train it.
When the alarm goes off and your flesh says, "Hey, let's sleep in 9 more minutes - hit that snooze button" you
train it by saying, "No, we are going to get up right now and not be tempted to oversleep." If you blow it and hit
the snooze button, just repent, forgive yourself and work on it again the next morning. Just keep going on and
doing it; never quit. Eventually your body will obey you and you will get up for that hour.
Same thing with that treadmill! You head into the exercise room and before you even get there, your flesh says,
'HEY! LOOK ! A magazine you haven't read yet. See it? It's right over there on the coffee table. Let's pick it up
and thumb thru it before you get on the treadmill. It will only take a minute!"
You HAVE to say, "No, body, we're going in there and getting on that treadmill right now." If you do pick up the
magazine and read until you forget about the treadmill, repent, forgive yourself, and begin again the next day.
Just keep going on and doing it; never quit. Eventually, your body will obey you (even if it does keep trying to
trick you) and you will walk on the treadmill faithfully.
You have His Word on it!
Scripture References:
1 Thess. 5:23
1 Timothy 4:7
Hebrews 5:14; 12:11
The word "exercise" means "to train"
Inspiration Copyright © 2008 Nan C Loyd
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
| When You Fail |
| Say It: I walk in the Spirit and not the flesh. I tell my flesh what to do, not the other way around! |
 |