Hebrews 5:11-14, “I have a
lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve
picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be
teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and
go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—BABY’S MILK, when you
should have been on SOLID FOOD LONG AGO! MILK IS FOR BEGINNERS, INEXPERIENCED
IN GOD’S WAYS; SOLID FOOD IS FOR THE MATURE, who have some practice in telling
right from wrong.” (MSG)
Today, this devotional was
sent to remind you that you’ve been living far beneath your rights and
privileges as a Child of God. And now that you know better, do better! We
must stop begging, bargaining, pleading, and crawling. We have to Get
up and Walk! Whatever you don’t have, get up and go get! No excuses! Today
is your day of motivation to make changes in your life for the better. And if
that means you have to change some people, places and things, do so. If
it or they are not making you better, get rid of them before they make you
worse! Keep a circle of people who push you, pull you, charge and
challenge you. You need those who refuse to accept that where you are is as far
as you can go. You need people who put their foot in your back and propel you
out of your comfort zone. You need people who make you pick up tools and start
building instead of just looking at the blueprint.
You need people who act
like a nightmare to wake you from your daydream to get you to live your actual
dream! You need those who call you on the carpet no matter what. You need
those who will tell you, to your face, enough is enough. Get up, grow up and
get on with life! Don’t settle for flattery of speech; don’t settle for those
who say they understand your short-comings, struggles, and strongholds. Don’t
settle for those who will carry you so long they actually cripple you. Don’t
settle for those spoon-feeding you riches, when they should motivate you to
feed on repentance. You’ve been at this stage, on this level, for far too long!
Enough is indeed enough. How much more of your time, ability and life are you
really willing to waste?
Simple: A healthy child is
never content to stay at the same level, and neither should a healthy child of
God! Amazing how babies and children motivate themselves to the next level, but
we bible-toting, bible-believing, bible-quoting children of the Father are
always stuck at, a stagnant, stunted growth stage.
Unfortunately, too many of
God's children have reached a particular level of growing up in Jesus and they
have just settled down there. You see, they don't feed themselves much spiritually.
They depend largely on others feeding them. They have no devotion time, no time
in which they read the Word of God for themselves, instead of waiting around
for the latest fad-preacher to spoon-feed them sugar instead of handing them a
knife and fork for some meat! So many children of God don’t attend Sunday
School (which I never understand how you skip foundational teaching); nor do
they attend Bible Study (how do you stay healthy if you’re not eating the Word
of God, in a consistent, private and public setting is beyond me?)
Then, you have those
children of God who think spiritual crawling is just fine, maybe because most
of the Christians they know are stuck in the crawling stage. You know, those
who’ve been saved 40 years, in leadership 30 years, yet still going around in
the same immature circles for 20?! At what point to realize you’ve been in this
same place, with these same people, doing all the same stuff for years, and
nothing has made a bit of difference in your life yet?!
My favorite part: “BUT
THERE’S SO MUCH MORE. LET’S GET ON WITH IT!” I Agree! Let’s be real, who
wants to be in the exact same place June 9, 2018 that they were on June
9, 2017 or June 9, 1992 for that matter? There’s So Much More! More to Mature Into! Our
prayer lives should be more, our bible study should be more; our faith, hope
and trust in God should be more. We should have more stability by now.
More strength by now; more courage by now. More focus by now. In the words of
Paul, “…BY NOW YOU SHOULD BE…” So, maybe the question we need to ask ourselves
today is, “BY NOW, WHERE SHOULD I BE THAT I’M NOT? And your follow-up question?
“WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT…STARTING TODAY?!”
Complaining about the
marriage, finances, job, health, the children, the church in fault-finding,
blaming, gossiping, pointing fingers, whining, nagging, even crying will not
help the situation. It’s time to “…GET ON WITH IT!”Learn to cook, clean,
do laundry and pay bills on time. Get out of debt. Finish school. Get a job.
Take better care of your health. Move. Relocate. Change your conduct, speech,
and attitude. In other words, stop crawling around crying and get up and
walk! Walk to the interview, walk to the bank, walk to the counselor, walk
to the gym, walk to the real estate. We have to get up and actively do
something more to make our life better! Some people have been crawling
around in this crib of life long enough. Even babies grow out and grow up,
what’s your excuse?
If you feel that you’ve
been at this stage long enough; challenge yourself, stretch yourself, and most
of all, be honest with yourself, that you are not doing your very best. Today
is a great day to give it everything you’ve got! Get up, get out, get on
with it and get more!
In Philippians 3, beginning
with verse 12, we hear what a healthy child of God wants. Remember,
this was written by the Apostle Paul, maybe the most powerful Christian of all
time. But still he says, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ
Jesus took hold of me. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is
ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Today is your day to move
from mediocre to more. By the end of this year, don’t let your resolutions be
the same unfilled ones you made last year. Live today in such a way that you
need a whole new set of resolutions, because you’ve resolved to fulfill the old
ones already! Don’t get stuck! “HERE May Be Comfortable, But THERE Is
Calling You!” Today, Get Up, and Get There!
Blessings
J.P.
Olson
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