"Stay on Track"
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Change is hard, and consistently making different decisions is even more challenging. Alcoholics Anonymous started in 1935 when Bill Wilson, then 6 months sober, reached out to help a friend. Members earn chips for reaching benchmarks in their recovery — one year sober, for example — to celebrate that string of consistent sobriety. One AA slogan of encouragement is "Keep coming back. It works if you work it!" In other words, stick with the program! Attending a single meeting can only help so much; the goal is to make the hard choices that help you stay sober day after day after day.
We're Cross Training to develop our endurance, one of twelve marks of the Master we're working on this year. Endurance comes when we look to faithful witnesses in God's word, grow stronger in suffering, remain consistent, and bear each other's burdens. So how can we do the hard daily work to stay on track?
What You Need to Know
An afflicted, anonymous psalmist wrote that the strength within us might fail (Psalm 102:23-24) and the world around us will perish (Psalm 102:25-26), "but you are the same, and your years have no end" (Psalm 102:27). Our Lord is consistent — "Jesus Christ ... the same yesterday and today and forever" — and he calls us to be as well (Heb. 13:8-9). Jesus said his disciple must "take up his cross" — not occasionally — but "daily" if we want to follow him (Matt. 16:24).
The book of Hebrews serves as a warning about the dangers of inconsistent Christianity. It encourages us to think about older saints who taught us and remember how they lived: "Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith" (Heb. 13:7). We won't drift if Christ is our "sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (Heb. 6:19). It's easy to fall out of the habit of gathering with the church, considering assembling over-rated or unimportant. But Hebrews says, "to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Heb. 10:24-25).
Steadiness is a mark of maturity. It takes time and effort to stabilize our way of life rather than getting "tossed to and fro by the waves" — "no longer ... children" but attaining "mature manhood" (Eph. 4:13-14). As disciples, we embrace childlike innocence, but we need to grow beyond immature inconsistency. As Paul warns, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature" (1 Cor. 14:20).
What You Need to Do
Choose your "ruts" and dig them deep through deliberate repetition. Sometimes we get into discouraging or destructive patterns, like the wagon wheel ruts that stagecoach drivers couldn't easily escape. But as a friend used to say, "a good rut is just as hard to get out of as a bad one." For example, suppose we ingrain habits like gratitude, service, and assembling with believers. In that case, the inertia of good things can take us a long way, carrying us through moments when our willpower grows weak and our motivation drops to all-time lows.
Build your life around times of prayer. Talk to the Lord in the morning, the night, and throughout your day at both designated and improvised times. Jesus taught his disciples that they "ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). In a trio of commandments, the Bible urges consistency in joy, prayer, and gratitude, regardless of our situation (1 Thess. 5:16-18). If we let circumstances dictate who we'll be, how we'll think or act, we'll lose ourselves and drift away from our identity in Christ. Like the prophet Daniel, we have to resolve in our heart (Dan. 1:8) and hold to the practices that keep us focused on the Lord — like Daniel's daily prayers (Dan. 6:10).
Most of us will face seasons when our consistency will falter, and we wander from those godly patterns. That's when we most need to remember what our life is all about. "For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God" (1 Tim. 4:10). If we can think like a farmer, rising each day to work for a future yield, keeping our eyes focused and our hand on the plow (Luke 9:62), we'll steady ourselves and never "grow weary of doing good" (Gal. 6:9). May we look back someday on a life of consistent service and say, "the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith ... there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
Through the Week
- Read (Mon) — John 8:28-29; Luke 18:1-8; Acts 11:19-26; Psalm 119:31-33; Phil. 2:12-30
- Reflect (Tue) — What consistent traits do I want to build my life around?
- Request (Wed) — "May my heart be steadfast, O Lord" (cf. Psalm 57:7).
- Respond (Thu) — Start your day by honoring God (e.g., prayer, Bible, etc.) and do it for the whole week.
- Reach Out (Fri) — What attribute do you hope people can reliably see in you?
