It Takes Effort
Posted in Brandon's Posts, effort, walk with God 0 comments
Earlier this week I went to a Beta performance at the local high school. It was their run through performance before taking it to the Beta convention this weekend.
As I watched, I thought about all of the time and effort these kids put into making this production happen. They have worked long hours, sometimes on weekends (and other times during youth group...but that's another problem for another time) to make it good enough to perform and compete.
This got me thinking about all the stuff we put effort into because we want to be good at something. If we want to run a marathon, then we practice running all the time.
Diets require a full commitment.
Learning an instrument demands our time.
Becoming a better writer takes a lot of effort.
Anything we want to be good at or see improvements in takes time and effort. We know this and often apply it.
But when it comes to our walk with Christ we just expect to be better at it. We go through life thinking we can live the same way and one morning we will wake up able to fight off temptation or face persecution with ease.
We see the lives of "strong Christians" and we think to ourselves "man, I wish I had that kind of faith," but then we do nothing to ensure our faith grows.
Our walk with Christ is the most important relationship we have! It's also the most fulfilling. Some of our endeavors may land us a better job or help us look better or even bring us some happiness for a time. But God brings us salvation! We have true life in Him! Our walk with Christ should require the most amount of attention and effort of any other part of our lives. And not just today...but for the rest of our lives.
In high school I was on the Cross Country and Track Teams. I could run a 5K in 17:30 consistently and I could run a mile in under 5 mins. But once I stopped running on a regular basis I stopped being able to attain those times (I am way slower than that now!).
Our walk with God is the same. Unless we put effort into it every single day to read His word, talk with Him, worship Him, meet with others to encourage and challenge each other, our faith will grow smaller instead of bigger.
So fight the fight....run the race! Its a challenge but there is no reward like the one we receive from God and it is definitely worth it!
As I watched, I thought about all of the time and effort these kids put into making this production happen. They have worked long hours, sometimes on weekends (and other times during youth group...but that's another problem for another time) to make it good enough to perform and compete.
This got me thinking about all the stuff we put effort into because we want to be good at something. If we want to run a marathon, then we practice running all the time.
Diets require a full commitment.
Learning an instrument demands our time.
Becoming a better writer takes a lot of effort.
Anything we want to be good at or see improvements in takes time and effort. We know this and often apply it.
But when it comes to our walk with Christ we just expect to be better at it. We go through life thinking we can live the same way and one morning we will wake up able to fight off temptation or face persecution with ease.
We see the lives of "strong Christians" and we think to ourselves "man, I wish I had that kind of faith," but then we do nothing to ensure our faith grows.
Our walk with Christ is the most important relationship we have! It's also the most fulfilling. Some of our endeavors may land us a better job or help us look better or even bring us some happiness for a time. But God brings us salvation! We have true life in Him! Our walk with Christ should require the most amount of attention and effort of any other part of our lives. And not just today...but for the rest of our lives.
In high school I was on the Cross Country and Track Teams. I could run a 5K in 17:30 consistently and I could run a mile in under 5 mins. But once I stopped running on a regular basis I stopped being able to attain those times (I am way slower than that now!).
Our walk with God is the same. Unless we put effort into it every single day to read His word, talk with Him, worship Him, meet with others to encourage and challenge each other, our faith will grow smaller instead of bigger.
So fight the fight....run the race! Its a challenge but there is no reward like the one we receive from God and it is definitely worth it!
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