As I gather my things and head to my car my mind
fills with feelings of dread and despair as I think about walking the aisles
trying to locate the items on my list, the possibility that I’ll have to wait
in long lines, and then the final task of unloading my truck and putting the
food away. What dread awaits me each Sunday. What’s interesting though is this
sullen attitude has a way of turning from sour to sweet once I make it to the
store and start checking things off my list. By the time I get home and put
that last item away in my pantry I am filled with joy, fulfillment, and
completeness.
Grocery shopping isn’t the only task that I find myself
in this interesting, emotional, transition from gloom to gladness. When my
alarm goes off at 545 a.m. each weekday morning to workout I enter this same
cycle of emotions. I go from rejection of what I need to do, reflecting on what
I’m about to do to my body, to acceptance and action. The feelings that I
experience once I’ve completed a workout are beyond words. Relief. Joy.
Victory.
There are some tasks in life that we can’t rely on
our feelings to propel us to complete them. We won’t always feel like laying
out a healthy meal plan for our families and running to get the groceries,
especially when the recipe calls for a weird ingredient that you have to track
down in some weird aisle of the grocery store. Your body may not enjoy you
shaking it out of restful sleep in the morning to exercise. In both of these
cases though, you NEED to do them. Your family needs to eat and your body needs
exercise. Therefore, you have to execute these tasks.
While your body needs food and fitness, so does your
spirit, your mind, and your heart. You need the Word of God as your sustenance
to grow in wisdom and in truth. I don’t always feel like sitting down with the
Word of God and wrestling over its truth, but when I do there is a joy that floods
my mind and spirit as I’m filled with God’s truth. Making time to spend with
your Heavenly Father, getting to know Him and His Word takes discipline. You
won’t always feel like doing it. Don’t
let your feelings rule you. Let the Holy Spirit within in, propel you to open
His Word. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. God’s
Word will accomplish a good work in us if we discipline ourselves to study and
show ourselves approved. As we study we’ll find within ourselves a confidence
in who we are in Christ and who God is.
The next time that you feel a funk creeping over you
when it comes to something that you know you need to do, focus on the end
result. Your cupboards full of everything you need to prepare meals for your
family for the week, a healthy and stronger body, and God’s truth ruling your
heart and mind which will propel you to a life of peace. Results that are
definitely worth it.
