Last a lifetime...

While my blood is pumping and energy is flowing through my morning workout, I've discovered how much I enjoy listening to Joyce Meyer on the TV while doing so. It's like my morning dosage of joy. It never fails, she always says something that leaves me totally inspired. For example, what stuck with me this morning was "Christians need to stop having one foot on the world and another foot on God. We should fully commit to God saying 'I do' and accept the victory that is waiting on us" (paraphrasing). I feel better as I'm walking out the gym doors, ready to start my day. And then. As the day goes by, I lose it.

It got me thinking about how young in my faith I really am. How I still have so much more I need to learn and accept.

I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was 7 years old, however I didn't really understand everything about what I had done until I was 18. Some might argue that I truly didn't become saved until then. However, my point is: Have I progressed since then?

I think in many ways I have. For instance, when my mother was sick and unable to do anything for herself, my faith was tested. It was brought to new heights, possibly to heights no one could ever really understand. I felt with everything in my heart she would be healed and just relied on Him, ignoring my flesh thoughts of how it seemed impossible. I knew that God had everything under control no matter how helpless I felt. I studied Romans 4 over and over.

"Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God" (Romans 4:19-25).


Of course now I see things differently, I feel like God wanted my family to go through the "fire" so we could spend that time together before my mom went to Heaven. God only knows.

I've been through countless incidents where I felt like I've grown in my faith, as well as things I could have handled better.

I feel like I'm still missing the mark in a way that I'm putting up with so much less. I read scriptures, but I really need to STUDY it until I GET it. I struggle with certain areas of sin and don't set an example for others. I'm nice to others, but I sometimes don't go the extra mile like the Bible informs me to do. And, so much more.

How can I make my "morning joy" last a lifetime?

Victory IS waiting.