-Anthony, look for me this week, I'll be there at Bible study! ... (3 hours later, after Bible study ends) Hey, Anthony, I don't really know anyone so I just stood home...
-Anth, I am so pumped about learning more about the Bible, BUT ...
Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.
I don't know much, but here is something that I do know:
If you really want to do something in life, you find a way to do it, if not, you find an excuse.
Listen, don't get me wrong, I often feel the same way as you do before I go to church or attend Bible study. The warm cozy sheets over my body just seem to perform magic and continually lure me back inside of them ... or the number of reasons to avoid Bible study during the week always seem to pile up extra high just as I hit the front door.
I have a membership at my local YMCA and I try to get there 3-4 times a week. Every night I have my gym bag packed and ready by the door so I can easily grab it on the way out of my house. On the way to the gym, I am dreading it. I am tired. Nothing inside of me wants to be at the gym. Then I park my car, walk inside, look at all the machines, look at all the weights, look at all the posters of people with no body fat ... and I start.
As the time passes, something starts to happen inside of me. My mind starts following my body and I begin to sweat, I begin to push around the weights and get stronger. See, we have this backwards. We think that we have to be "in the mood" to first do something. Wrong. Greatness rarely is accomplished by men and women that where in the mood.
My friends, I have never regretted leaving the gym. Ever. (Except for that one time when I lifted too much and couldn't turn my neck left or right and everyone referred to me as "AnthonyStein"). Kidding aside, I always feel good mentally, physically and spiritually afterward.
I submit that the same will happen to you if you stop listening to yourself & start talking to yourself. Let's take this illustration a step further for a second because there is another parallel here that I do not want you to miss. Your faith is just like a muscle. If you do not find a way to exercise it and you neglect it; your faith ---like your muscle will atrophy.
Everyday, you and I have hundreds of excuses holding us back; keeping us further from the person that God has called us to become. This means you will have to be intentional about growing in your faith.
So stop the excuses.
And start flexing your spiritual biceps.
Here is a shameless plug. I offer a Bible study twice a week called,
Engage(D). We meet at the New Castle YMCA on Thursday night's (6:00 p.m.) & Monday night's at Northminster Presby. Church (6:30 p.m.).
If you want a place to come and grow, then I have an inkling that Engage(D) is the place for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment