Giving-up and giving-in is okay. But it’s not the end of the story. Not by a long shot. If we keep endeavouring on that “impossible” task or goal, sooner or later God will tip in his miraculous power to transform us in this.
This will occur at the precise time we make this task or goal the most important thing.
The Lord doesn’t tarry in such ventures; we do!
We are the ones folding our arms in stubborn protest. That or we deplore ourselves for having, once again, failed.
Between aggression toward God for not doing this thing for us and submitting inexorably to self-pity for lack of strength, stands the simple gumption of obedience.
God will give us the calling, revelation, power, and Presence we need.
Steps to Progress
We never achieve all of anything all at once, but we do make progress when we obey.
The operative word in the above sentence is do.
Progress is the sum of our effort in conjunction with God’s everlasting anointing—the Spirit that abides with us in our obedience (John 15:7-8).
All the Lord expects from us is commitment to progress. And progress is not too lofty for us like perfection is.
Steps toward progress include seeking God four ways:
1. Seeking God’s blessing toward the call of progress for you; that which is God’s will for your life. Your relationship with God is personal, so is your discreet and unique call.
2. Seek God’s blessing toward revelation of how the call is to be manifest. Revelation is the discernment of Divine Wisdom regarding what information is made known Spiritually and what is to be acted upon.
3. Once you have knowledge of your call and revelation—to the point of knowing your tasks and goals, and how they’re to be done—you are then in a position to seek God’s power to achieve what you were predestined to achieve.
4. The final step is to seek God’s Presence for each step along the way. This is essential. There will be dark times of doubt and discouragement—thought, again, to give up. When you feel the Lord present with you these times, you’ll get through. You will dispel doubts with your faith and you will sense the Holy Spirit within you encouraging you to dig in. Your hand in God’s; you’ll get through.
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Cooperating with God is the way to achieve our tasks and goals. Only there is calling to make the goal meaningful. Only there is revelation regarding how. Only there is power to achieve. And, finally, only there is the Presence, which drives our faith and encourages us when we feel like giving up.
We may fail fifty times, but if we don’t give up on our goals we will achieve them, eventually. All the while we are learning; that drives resilience; and, that pleases God.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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