Welcome to Day 3 of 21 Days of Prayer!
You're out front, leading the pack, starting the new year with focus and grit determination. But then you remember ~ you've done this before and each time, you slow down, encounter a few hurdles and next thing you know, your drive for the goal has stalled. Remembering a past like that can leave a person feeling down, dejected and choosing to give up.
What is a person to do?
Lead and feed!
In case you haven't figured it out yet, getting started is only part of the success equation. Finishing is the crowning jewel!
For those who are wise and motivated enough to get started, you are leading. However, the challenge to accomplishing your goals in 2018 is continuing through the process of growth, development and problem solving. That will require feeding.
In the same way that a lengthy road trip requires you to periodically stop at the gas station and refuel your tank, the process of finishing what you start requires a replenishing of your inner man. That's the stuff that keeps you going! Going, until you reach your destination.
Philippians 1:6 provides a promise that we can hang on to. It says there is one thing that we can be confident of and that is, "...he which has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
It doesn't get any better than that! But you must commit yourself to doing your part.
There is a saying, "Leaders are readers", which means leaders are those out front who have discovered how to feed themselves so that they have the strength and presence of mind to feed others.
Our goal in Christ, is to be light to the world. This is why we must intentionally include time studying the Bible, praying for guidance, actively attending church with other believers, sharing our faith with those who will listen and quietly contemplating your personal relationship with God.
Maya Angelou explained her insight this way:
"I believed that there was a God because I was told it by my grandmother and later by other adults. But when I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous."
Let's pray:
Lord of Heaven and Earth, I am so thankful that You have given me the hunger to become the person You designed me to be.
I am so thankful that You have deposited within me, the desire to share Your unprecedented love with people who have not yet understood what it means to be in close relationship with You.
My goal in 2018, is to lead and feed.
As I become closer and more sincere about serving you, may I also comprehend the length of your mercy, allow me to internalize the width of your grace and open my heart that I may ingest the depth of your love.
Make me courageous and unashamed to tell others of how You have renovated my life by giving me purpose and fulfilling my hope of sharing this great and precious faith with all who would dare to listen.
I declare that this year is the year that I decrease so that Christ may increase in my every thought and by undeniably pure actions, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
Inspiring Hope, Seasoning Faith, Pastor Sean