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?

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)

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 December 12, 2017, that they were on Dec. 12, 2016? Or Dec. 12, 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?!”

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, 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. 

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

www.thewordwithjpolson.com