Okay, Okay, I’ll confess.
I tend to (more often than not) begin projects with immense enthusiasm but then struggle to finish them. It’s SO easy for me start out with good intentions, only to have them wither away like a flower after the initial bloom of excitement. While this may not be such a big deal when it comes to crocheting blankets or scarves for people, when it comes to my spiritual life it’s another story.
I’m embarrassed by the number of mornings I have woken up to my alarm, took my sister to school, poured myself hot tea, snuggled up in a blanket on my rather comfortable couch with Bible and journal in hand…and then spent the time I had set aside for the Lord in allowing my mind to drift away, leaping from verse to verse, getting up and doing some monotonous task , checking my phone, and basically being wildly distracted. I woke up with good intentions- I just lacked the ability it fulfill them.
I tell people all the time (including on social media), “I just love studying God’s Word!” and genuinely. But I always ask myself the question:
does my life display that those words are actually true?
In my ever-failing human nature, I can easily convince myself that having the right desire, or “good intentions” is the same as acting upon it—but it is only the first step.
I want to put real actions behind my good intentions; to put works behind my faith; to turn my enthusiasm into something more than void words. For example, I have been overwhelmingly convicted about the number of times I say either with my mouth or in my thoughts, “I will pray,” but do not pray.
In short, I’ve come to realize that having the right tools and the right desire doesn’t equate to action.
His work, not mine, is the only thing that will allow me to live out the good things of God that I desire. Jesus Christ can turn my “wanting spirit” into a “doing spirit.”
This is a never-ending battle, but one that EVERYONE goes through!
I choose to do the hardest thing first, and with joy, because “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it” (1 Thess. 5:24).
I do it even when I don’t feel like it, because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9).
I remove or ignore distractions because I am “doing a great work [with the Lord] and…cannot come down” (Neh. 6:3).
With Jesus, we have the ability to go beyond good intentions!
