Introduction

We are an impatient people. We ask for God’s guidance and get frustrated when we don’t see immediate results. We set out on a grand journey and get distressed at a days’ walking, seeing that we barely made any progress. Why does it feel so slow? How do we follow God’s pace faithfully?

Gritt

This is by no means just a problem Christians face. All progress is made incrementally. All success comes from the prolonged and constant sacrifice of the present, to attain a better future. The world’s advice to dealing with the slow march of success quite frankly sucks!

Tough it out. Just do it. Suck it up buttercup.

This is the manta of the world. If you want to be successful, your willpower will have to bend to the demands of progress. Never mind the fact that willpower does not work this way. If you run a marathon in the morning, you will not be able to clock into work for an 8 hour shift afterwards. If your only focus is progress, you will be burned out quickly. Sure, you can work for three days straight, without sleep or rest. But, if you have to be hospitalized afterwards, the whole exercise was largely unproductive.

‘Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to.’

– 1 Timothy 5:13 (NIV)

You need to be productive, but also not to become a busybody who focusses on all the wrong things. You need to manage work and rest in the right balance to make progress, but also to keep making progress into the future. Moreover, willpower has a limited store. If you waste it on something unproductive or inefficient, you will need to recoup that store before you can jump into the next grind. How do we know if we have the right focus?

Focus

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

– Matthew 19: 26 (NIV)

In Jesus we have a promise. All the things God is calling us toward, does not have to be done in our own ability, but by God’s power. In John 21, some of Jesus’ disciples were exerting all their willpower and fishing in vain. Until Jesus told them to throw their nets on the other side. After shifting their focus to where Jesus wanted their focus to be, their bounty was so big, they couldn’t drag it out of the water.

Every day, our first priority should be to align our will with the will of God. If we want to reach heavenly goals, we need a heavenly focus. Ask for God’s guidance in prayer, study His word and be led by the Spirit. Ask God what your biggest focus should be today. Where would your focus reap the most rewards? What sacrifice should you make today, to come closer to the person God wants you to be?

Apply this to every aspect of your life and give it all your focus. What should your number one focus be at work for instance? That task you can scale to get the biggest results. Identify what tasks gets you closer to God’s goal and focus on that first. Before you have spent your store of willpower. Give the biggest tasks the focus it deserves and do it first thing.

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

– Mark Twain

Garry Keller, in his book the one thing, describes this as setting up a domino. He writes that your only focus each day should be to set up a single domino. The most important focus for the day. If your focus every day is to set up one domino, then you build up a store of potential energy that can topple and knock over tomorrow’s domino. Dominos that propel each other forward to the next day, is called a habit.

Habits

I fall trap to the lie of intensity all the time. I get excited and I start doing something with such a fierce intensity, that I can’t possibly keep that up. I am in the habit of working until I burn out, then I have to restructure my thinking to regain any semblance of motivation. This is a lie. This road does not lead to success. The way you reach success is through consistency.

If you have the intensity to go to a dental hygienist every three months to get a cleaning, but you didn’t have the consistency to brush your teeth every day, the outcome would be rotten teeth. If your marathon training was to start running a complete marathon every day, you will never make it to the race.

“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”

– F. M. Alexander

The way to reach lofty goals. Heavenly goals. The way to become better at anything. Is to take one deliberate step in the right direction. Then tomorrow, you will be one step closer to your goal.

In The Small Things

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

– Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)

The day of small things and small beginnings. Every journey starts with a single step. Every cathedral was built by laying one brick at a time. God works the same way with us.

David, the greatest king of history, started by shepherding his father’s sheep. In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel come to anoint the next king of Israel. Nobody even bothered calling David. He was just the shepherd of the family sheep. But David’s faithfulness in the small things, made him great. His faithful shepherding of his father’s sheep, eventually made him a faithful Shepherd to the people of God. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings, it’s only the beginning.

Conclusion (Exponential Results)

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

– Matthew 25: 21 (NIV)

Garry Keller concludes his domino analogy, by explaining the exponential results you can receive if you set up one domino a day. The domino has the energy necessary to knock over the next domino. But the next domino can actually be slightly bigger than the previous one. If you keep lining up bigger dominos, the end result could be massive.

Focus on God’s will. Give all your focus to the most important thing. Build a habit, and be faithful in the small beginnings. If you follow these steps, there is no limit to the goals God has in store for you. Have the courage to be persistent.

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John

Hi I'm John, a twenty something pastor dedicated to learning Theology and teaching it to everyone. That's why I'm here. Lets stick together, grow closer to God and escape the ordinary!