I still have Olympic \u201cfever\u201d as I think about the undaunted persistence of those athletes. They didn\u2019t get to the Olympics because they felt like it. They made it to the Olympics by hours and months and years of training, rehearsing, taping up sore body parts, giving up many simple pleasures of time, food, and companionship.
The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people don\u2019t feel like doing. They develop habits. They stay committed.
So, confession time for me. It\u2019s another day of coming out from under my \u201cmighty woman of God\u201d rock to boast about some of my weaknesses. I\u2019m following St. Paul\u2019s lead with his powerful words of advice. He said: \u201cBut He said to me, \u2018My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.\u2019 I will rather BOAST most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.\u201d (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Here goes. To tell the truth \u2013 sometimes, I don\u2019t want to answer my phone, so I let the call go to my voice mail. And, sometimes, I don\u2019t feel like doing the unselfish thing. I want to just sit in my cozy chair and take a power nap or watch TV. Sometimes I don\u2019t want to do one more thing in a day. Sometimes I don\u2019t want to respond to someone asking for advice. BUT just because I don\u2019t feel like it, doesn\u2019t mean I shouldn\u2019t do it.
This might really shock you. Sometimes I don\u2019t feel like praying or reading my Bible or devotional. But I do it. I\u2019ve found that if the only time I pray or read my Bible is when I feel like it, then Satan has a heyday making sure I never feel like it. I\u2019ve been in this \u201cmature\u201d relationship with God long enough that I know I must live my life by my commitments, not by my feelings.
Like the Olympic’s athletes and their persistence to be their best, we don\u2019t become godly men or women by simply doing what we feel like doing. Godly men and women choose to develop the habits that produce godliness in their lives.
Probably the greatest example in the Bible of persistence is Moses. For 40 years, he led whining and grumbling people around the desert while they questioned his leadership the entire time. Yet he never gave up. Hebrews 11:27 says, \u201cIt was faith that made Moses leave Egypt without being afraid of the king\u2019s anger. As though he saw the invisible God, he refused to turn back.\u201d Moses saw the invisible God. He kept his eyes on God.
Taking Moses\u2019 attitude and persistence, rather than retreating \u2013 we, too, carry on and keep our eyes on God, too! We continue our persistence to win the battle by being God\u2019s devoted, persistent followers and by doing the uncomfortable. Hearing \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant,\u201d will make it worth it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I still have Olympic \u201cfever\u201d as I think about the undaunted persistence of those athletes. They didn\u2019t get to the Olympics because they felt like it. They made it to the Olympics by hours and months and years of training, rehearsing, taping up sore body parts, giving up many simple pleasures of time, food, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22776,22777],"tags":[13013,1210,16226,1769,2055,22775,1406,230,40,3797,3701,6849,575,4035,1725],"class_list":["post-15558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commitment","category-olympics","tag-athletes","tag-blog","tag-boast","tag-christian","tag-commitment","tag-develop-habits","tag-godliness","tag-habits","tag-inspiration","tag-moses","tag-olympics","tag-persistence","tag-relationship","tag-weaknesses","tag-well-done"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15560,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15558\/revisions\/15560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}