No Deposit, No Return
Keeping Strong
Today: If you are feeling overwhelmed in even taking small steps to your goal, if may be that another area of your life is out of whack. Today, I want you to look at some of the strengthening areas of your life and check to make sure that you are taking good care of yourself.
Exercise and eating right are a key to a healthy life but being fit spiritually is the key to being successful.
Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Zig Zigler says it this way: “The story is told of a little guy valiantly but futilely trying to move a heavy log to clear a pathway to his favorite hideout. His dad stood nearby and finally asked him why he wasn’t using all his strength. The little guy assured his dad he was straining with all his might. His dad quietly told him he was not using all his strength, because he hadn’t asked him (his dad) to help.”
Is that how you are running through your day? Working and struggling, feeling like you are expending all of your energy but not making an inch’s worth of progress? I call those days “swimming through molasses”. When I get that feeling of just going backwards when all my energy is spent trying to move me forward, more often than not, those are the days that I have been “too busy to pray”.
You are doing something pretty extraordinary over the next couple of weeks – taking some steps to start living out a God-given dream. So let’s make sure the other areas of your life are in balance. One of the beautiful things about having a specific goal is that it can give you great direction in other areas of your life. If you are goalless, it is easy to get off path. But a good solid goal out in front of you is like having a finish line at the end of a race. While you’re focused on running toward that finish line, there are only a few things you have to be concerned about, (making sure you stay hydrated, making sure you are keeping up a doable pace,) and a million things you don’t have to worry about.
Tell us in the comment below one way you are going to make sure you carve out a quiet time in your daily routine.
I am doing 2 quiet times a day since I can’t seem to get more then 15min each time lol Once in the morning and once at night before bed, THat way I start the day and end the day in Peace… thats the plan at least 🙂
I typically have 2 quiet times each day. The first is when I first wake up before my daughter gets up to get ready for school. That is my devotional and prayer time to start my day with God. I’ve been slacking a bit with school out and the holiday craziness. I’m also preparing to move next week which has me off balance. So that time needs to be held more precious and honored consistently. The second quiet time I have each day is at the end of my day after my daughter is in bed, I spend about 15 minutes reviewing my day and making preparations and plans for the next day. This time I have been maintaining, but it has extended as long as 30 minutes lately due to crazy-busy deadlines and major life unheaval in this new year. We’re only 7 days in and it’s already been trial by fire. When I think about that I get very scared. Re-instating my morning time with the Lord will go a LONG ways toward removing that fear. Thank you for the reminder.
This one hit me hard. Overwhelmed seems to be the theme of all my days lately.
In response to making time – I have an intimate relationship with the snooze button, so from now on instead of hitting the button, I’m going to turn to prayer. It will do me a whole world of good, way more than the ten minute catnap before the alarm goes off again.
And my plan B (old habits are hard to break) I will spend a few moments before bed with the Lord.
I have made a commitment to start waking an hour before the children and using that hour to exercise and do some Bible reading. I start my day off right and get to do it without interruption (in theory!).
I used to get up early (5:30) to exercise with my husband. The plan was that I’d then shower and have devotional time. However, what happened in reality is that I’d shower and then get caught up in all sorts of other “stuff” that “needed” doing.
Finally occurred to me that I need to LITERALLY start my day with God’s word in my mind in order to prevent my own “tapes” from taking over and setting the tone for the day. So I still get up at 5:30, but I have my quiet time first and then join my husband for exercise. Often, I’ll take along a verse or two from my Bible time to continue pondering and memorizing so that it’ll be easily retrievable throughout the day when I need and attitude fix!
My “quiet time” works best at the end of the day. I close out my day by spending time with God. About 30 minutes before I go to bed, I read my devotional and Bible. For me, it helps bring quiet and peace to my soul regardless of the chaos of my day. It calms my mind and really helps prepare me for a good night’s sleep. I’ve cleared my mind of the day’s clutter and close out my day by focusing on God.
I have found myself making excuses already. I have set up space in the guest bedroom where I can close the door and sit quietly. I am going to set an alarm on my phone and when the alarm goes off, I will go into the room and study.
Nothing holds you more accountable than your own children! Mine being 8 and 5 for sure do this! If I tell them we are going to something (as long as the deem it as “fun”) they NEVER forget! So I found a super great children’s devotional [The One Year Choose Your Own Ending Devotions…don’t worry it’s not sacrilegious, we aren’t changing the ending to any Bible stories!] Three days in and we haven’t missed a night! They are loving it and I’m loving the time with them not to mention the spiritual value it will have! Thanks for helping us work through achieving our goals!
I get up early to read my devotional and pray. I rally enjoy the peace and quiet with the Lord and my coffee. Then I can go thru my emails and blogs I enjoy