Instant Change

Most of the time I consider myself a patient person. I generally understand the concept of delayed gratification, doing the work now and not seeing the results for awhile. I don’t feel the need to be the first one to see or do something. I will gladly let others rush to the movies or to the store to get the new phone or gadget the day it comes out. I would rather someone else deal with all the problems with the latest phone or save me the time of going to a boring movie. But when it comes to my own development and growth, I am not a very patient person. I want instant change.

In our microwave world of instant everything and all the information we could ever need sitting in our back pocket, we are becoming less patient. We can buy almost anything we want from our phones and have it delivered to our house the next day or sooner. We have instant everything and via our favorite app, we can hire someone to do anything we don’t want to. We no longer have to wait in line, wait for the next episode to come out as we binge watch on our favorite streaming network. But, despite the infomercials and the popups on the YouTube videos, I have yet to figure out how to have instant self development, instant financial success, and instantly get into shape (round is a shape, right?).

Discipline is something I have struggled with for awhile. As a kid, I was naturally pretty good at a lot of things. Not great at anything, but pretty good. I was satisfied with being pretty good, as long as I didn’t have to work very hard at it. If it started to become difficult, I moved on to the next thing. As a result, I did not develop a strong self discipline. I want to watch a how to video and instantly know how to play guitar. I want to sort of exercise for three days and be in shape (no, not round). As I look around and talk to others, I am discovering that I am not alone. One of the greatest weakness of humans is our lack of self discipline. The world is full of people who wish they could ___ (you fill in the blank), but have never been disciplined enough to do it.

I get the concept that there is only so much time in the day. I use that excuse, too. Yes, we have to make choices. Unfortunately, far too often my choice has been to not do anything because I’m too busy doing nothing. I am too exhausted when I get home from work. I need some quiet time. I need to spend time with my kids, of course meaning I’m going to sit on the couch and turn on a movie and pretend I am spending quality time with the family. We all have the same 24 hours a day, as I’m sure you have heard before. We all choose to use it differently. When it comes down to it, most of us don’t push ourselves because of two reasons. We have never taken the time to seek God’s guidance and figure out what direction we really need to go or we have allowed fear to stop us. What if I invest my time and energy into this and find out I’m not any good at it, or people don’t like what I do? What if I fail?

What if we seek God, trust Him, and begin to discipline ourselves to do what we need to do? What if we exercised regularly, as in at least 3 times a week, not once a quarter? What if we put an effort into developing new habits that lead us toward our goals and God’s calling? What if we focused on seeking God and His righteousness, following where he is leading us?

I often am quick to bring up the scripture that “God did not give us a spirit of fear.” But I often overlook the second part of that and certainly do not put it into practice in my own life.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. – 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (NKJV)

I am quick to point out that fear, timidity, being afraid to do something, is not from God. But the verse doesn’t stop there. We get rid of the fear and timidity, but what do we replace it with? If we replace it with nothing, the fear comes right back and is stronger. We have to push the fear aside by bringing in the power of God, love and self-discipline.

As we close out this first month of the new year and new decade, let us move forward in the power, love, and self-discipline that God promises. As we have already fallen short on our goals and resolutions; as we have allowed fear and frustration to rule our lives; as we have failed in our “instant change”, let us put those fears and failures behind us, focus on today and seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3: 12-14 (ESV)

I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to how you are doing on your goals for the year and how God is working in you.

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