As swift as the day comes, so it leaves. Life is swirling by faster than we would like to give it credit for, as our clocks and calendars remind us of our routine oriented lives.

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:14

Stop Spinning Your Wheels

I heard it once said, “If you aren’t moving forward spiritually, you are moving backward.” I am beginning to see the value in this quote as I look at the pattern of my own life of growth and stagnation. Things build off of each other: knowledge, experience, etc. If you stop growing, you have changed your focus and your search, and you are just spinning your wheels through the same stuff you have already mulched over.

A good question to ask is what is my next step? Where can I grow?

Are you Growing Complacent?

Only you and God know if you have become complacent. It is a personal marker. Comparing yourself to the next guy will have no value because you are each running your own journey. If you are reading your Bible everyday, going to Church every week, etc. you can still be growing complacent because it doesn’t have to do with how you look to everybody else. It has to do with if you still are in the process of growing and yearning after God. We have to continually remember the fire that originally drove us to love deeper, live fuller.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Hebrews 12:1

This verse doesn’t say walk at a leisurely pace. It doesn’t say get there eventually. It says run the race with perseverance. This verse implies running with focus, intention and hope. Keeping your eyes on the prize not just barely making it over the finish line.

Root of Complacency

Complacency can come on because of growing tired, losing focus, allowing things contrary to God to flood our mind so we grow desensitized and question what indeed we want to strive for. Sometimes it could just be boredom in ritualistic routine. Don’t be afraid to mix things up. I have to every few months. Perhaps change from reading your Bible to doing an audio Bible, or from reading straight through the Bible to an organized devotional. Sometimes I notice complacency brewing when I am reading the Bible but not actually applying it to my life.

God’s reminders

I love when God sends a random reminder of what we are here for. It sometimes feels like I was tagged out of a basketball game, and then the coach is telling me to go back in. Today I received that jolt by a random act of kindness. So I am charging forward with the strength God has granted me today. May you be encouraged and be someone else’s jolt today.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Gal. 6:9

Photo Credit: by Life of Pix