Staying the Course

As a Christian, do you ever find yourself "backsliding"? I have not yet met any Christian who claims not to have fallen down after beginning the journey of living out that relationship with Jesus. I am no exception!

So here I am - "backslidden" and not such a happy camper about it. Busyness is my biggest weak link in the chain of staying on course. As a wife, mother, employee, friend, and seemingly dozens of other "hats" worn throughout my day, it is more than easy to get caught up in busyness. In those times, I often lose sight of my priorities in the flurry of activities and "to-do lists". I miss out on the tender stillness of time spent in real fellowship with Jesus. My relationship with Him becomes just another thing to check off my list...even in those times I put it on the top of that list. Then, is it any wonder that I find myself far from the Lord, disconnected, and thirsty for the Living Water?

While I would love to give a solution for this pervasive problem, I have none. Staying the course, for me, has meant finding myself here, trying to pinpoint where I went awry, implementing protective hedges, and trying again. No magical wand, no one scripture to memorize, no one thing to "do better"...just the realization that I need to 1) be somewhere other than where I am and 2) be someone I can only be while in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. I have thought that perhaps I was missing something in my protective hedges, but the reality is, we have an enemy that studies us far more than I think we study him and he is clever at finding holes in our armor. In the end, the way to stay out of harms way is by seeking refuge in the Lord. Dying to self, dying to the fleshly nature at war within us, is a daily transformation!

So if you and I will stop right now and think about what today really is - a day of spiritual battling - will we get up and fight or are we going to lay down and play dead? If you are anything like me, you'd rather lay down. It takes effort to do battle. It takes stamina to do battle. It takes a willingness to stay the course. Are we willing? Can we stop in our tracks, no matter how comfortable the deviation, and return to the right course? For both our sake's, I pray so!

God bless each of you and may we all stay on course today!!

Hebrews 10:19-23

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.