Day 26 - Issue 24
Hebrews 5:14 NLT
'Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.'
Diets are all the rage. They’re usually adopted by people feeling guilty about their weight and sometimes driven by fear of Type 2 Diabetes and other health-related threats, but whatever their reasons, much of the time the dieters fail. I remember, after Christmas when the papers fill their magazines with miraculous diet plans, agreeing with Katey that we would follow along. Inspired for a moment, we never even implemented the recommendation for day one. We failed before we started.
Yet, forming habits is perhaps the only way by which we can advance towards any goal we hold. The challenge is we are intoxicated with the end result. We live the other side of the finishing line before the starting pistol has been fired. This is a guarantee that we will be forever dreamers and never realise our goal. The way to approach any goal is to concentrate upon making a good start, without which we are not even in the race.
I have spent years wrestling with the practice of consistent prayer. Prayer is commended in the scriptures, was practised by Jesus and is practised by Church and disciple alike. Now as a hermit in training, I find many people talk to me about the unsatisfactory nature of their own prayer life; their assumption being that I have tapped into a silver bullet that at a stroke will deal with the discomfort they experience with their own prayer life. I disabuse everyone of that assumption.
The way to advance towards any goal, dietary or prayerful, is to determine to practise every day, regardless of the apparent personal gains. Feelings are a terrible measure against which to determine if something is working or not. It is essential to establish a plan and to then implement that plan daily. This daily practice then becomes a habit and a part of our regular, everyday experience.
QUESTION: What steps do you need to take daily to realise the dreams God has given you?
PRAYER: Lord, train this child in the way I should go, form me and grow a godly character within me that I may serve you better.
