It ain’t a sprint

Romans 5:3-4 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

You might say, “I am gonna get off this couch and go run a marathon.” You might say, “I am gonna live my life for Jesus and not let anything in this world bother me.” Both require training, both require sacrifices, both require pain through endurance, both require that your heart be truly in it to press through it. If you are to attempt to run a marathon, you are taking your body places it has never been; if you are seeking to live as Jesus’ disciple, your life has never went upstream against the world. You are telling the world that the pleasures and pains of it no longer matter to you, for you see the goal at the end of the race of life; you are working towards eternal paradise in heaven with Jesus. You will have angered the limited ruler of this world, Satan, and he will come at you with vigor and trials of seemingly endless sorts. You will have days and weeks that everything that can go wrong does, and you will have weeks that pleasures of the worldly sorts abound. Both of these are spiritual warfare tactics to make you focus on this world and not the eternal one where you reap your decisions made here. Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things of this earth.

I promise you that sanctification is a lifelong process that God takes transforming you into the image of his Son. You are not going to run that marathon just off the couch, and it is going to take your lifetime for you to be closer to Jesus than the day you gave your life to and for him. God will use every tactic that Satan deploys against him. Everything that Satan seeks for you to lash out at, or curse God for, God can use to draw you closer to himself. Every time Satan seemingly blesses your life or your business to get you to invest in earthly pleasures, God reminds you that all good gifts come from above (James 1:17). Every time that Satan gives you those days, even weeks at a time, where all that can go wrong does, God shows you that pain is temporary, and does the situation really have eternal consequences. Likely Satan is just trying to weaken your faith, and God is using Satan’s fire to refine your faith. Where you once lashed out, you may find yourself just moving on and realizing there is not much you can do about it, and it really doesn’t matter at all. The thing Satan meant for evil, God meant it for good. (Romans 8:28).

Make up your mind through your heart that you are going to live your life for Jesus. Don’t just say a prayer and go on with your life as it was; draw a line in the sand to divide your life before and after Him. Let God have control of your life through your heart and testify to the change he has worked in you. Become a person that is truly a disciple by living through every day life’s situations as a disciple. Don’t let the little things become big things; don’t let the problems of the day take away from the hope Paul writes about here in Romans. This eternal hope outweighs any little thing that Satan is allowed to send your way.