Consistency

My life changed drastically and suddenly four years ago.  I became a single mom to three young children and was pregnant with our fourth child.  In the middle of the chaos and confusion, I felt that God was telling me that He would redeem these lost years, but that I needed to stop playing in the shallow end of the pool with my faith- that He wanted to take me to the deep end of the pool and I needed to trust Him. 

I also felt like He was telling me that this process of growing up and growing in my faith would take time.  Like many Americans, I want a solution now, without having to wait.  I also wanted to have control of my circumstances and if I couldn't control my circumstances, I wanted other people to help change my circumstances.  I may not have verbalized this, but I did seek other people's opinions and prayer, at times before I sought the Lord's heart.

When everything is stripped away, you realize that you need to surrender and let the Lord lead.  All my striving in my own strength got me no where.  Once I was still and quiet, I heard the Lord speaking to me to seek Him in His Word and in prayer.  I wouldn't change the last four years, because the process of change has been, though painful, the most precious gift ever.

As I have sought the Lord, He has spoken to me that a lifetime of faithfulness is where our testimony lies.  His faithfulness to us never fails and we are to turn our lives over to Him to be filled up with Him and not ourselves.  Honestly, this consistency for me is often a minute by minute decision to take captive every thought.  The only way to take captive every thought is to know what His Word says.  We can only know His Word if we are in it.  Any time I feel far from the Lord, it is because I have moved and am not reading and praying as consistently, not because He ever moved.

I heard a great illustration a while back about the water drop that keeps dropping onto the hard stone.  Over time, the shape of that hard stone changes because of the consistent drop of the water.  The water doesn't stop, it keeps dripping and dripping and dripping.  It is not one drop that changed the stone, it is many drops over time that changed the stone.  So, too, with us and our faith, it is not a one-time "drop" that changes us, it is a lifetime of faithfulness.

It is getting up in the morning and determining to seek the Lord for that day.  It is in being present with those we love.  It is is continually seeking to lay down our own will and way and surrender it all to the Lord's will and way.  It is not the mountain top events in my life that have changed me the most, it is the every day surrendering and growing that have started the process of cutting away everything that does not bring Him glory.  I am certainly not there yet, but the last four years have shown me that consistency over time is where true faith lies.

The greatest heroes of the faith, to me, are the ones who have run the race consistently for a lifetime.  Though they may stumble, they get up again and again to be changed and used by the Lord.  I spent the first half of my life focused on doing things in my own strength- what an ugly testimony.  I pray the next half of my life is spent in service to the Lord and others.

The message of consistency rings true in all areas, faith, family, friends, business.  "The race does not go to the swift, but he that endures"  May we be found faithful in all things- being persistent like the water drop on the stone.  "Keep on keeping on."