Ever noticed that when you finally get serious about making some changes it seems like everything conspires to keep you from making that change?
You finally decide to lose a few pounds so you join a gym, buy the workout clothes, and get your bag packed. The next day your boss needs you to stay late for an unexpected project or your child gets sick and needs you to get them from school early or your spouse has to stay late at work so you have to pick up the children. Goodbye gym. Goodbye new routine. Not to mention that every person you know seems to be having a party or a cookout with all of your favorite foods–testing your will power. Why is it so hard to get in shape?
Or maybe you decide it’s time to finally retire the credit card debt. You create a plan to pay it off and then your hot water heater goes, you find out your child needs braces, your car needs a water pump, the roof starts leaking, and then to beat it all your favorite store sends you an email announcing “Take an Additional 70% Off Clearance Prices!” You throw your hands up and think…maybe next year!
I think it’s important for you to understand that this doesn’t just happen to you! Everyone experiences this principle when wanting to make a positive change:
Wherever you take a stand you’ll be attacked.
It doesn’t matter what area you take a stand in, you’re going to be attacked. Whether the area you are working on is your marriage, being a more involved parent, or getting serious about Jesus and His Church, you’ll be attacked. I’ve noticed this in my own life. If I take a stand to help marriages I can count on the fact that my marriage is going to go through a rough spell. I dread doing series on relationships because I know I’ll be attacked in my own. I take a stand to help marriages and my marriage starts to struggle. Wherever you take a stand you’ll be attacked…count on it!
So if you’ve recently taken a stand and said “enough is enough,” you are tired of settling and now it seems like all hell broke loose, don’t worry. It’s a good sign. It’s normal.
The struggle starts when you decide to start. Up until this point you’ve been content with saying, “Tomorrow.” “Tomorrow, I’ll work on my marriage…debt…future…faith…” Tomorrow can easily turn into decades without any changes. We would never tell ourselves that I’ll stay this way my entire life, we soothe the small voice nudging us to change with…”Tomorrow.” Hell loves the lie of tomorrow. “Tomorrow” seems so full of hope and it goes down way easier than “never.”
You only experience this struggle when you are trying to move from one level to the next. You never experience pushback if you want to settle into mediocrity or go backwards. Hell is totally content with you being content with average. When you decide to become who God created you to be…that’s dangerous to the purposes of Hell! When you begin to grow and change and become the person God wants you to be in all areas of your life other things begin to change. Your positive changes and growth affect other things. You begin to inspire people that change is possible. You begin to remind people that they don’t have to settle. You become a tide that begins to raise other ships. It’s infectious and Hell can’t have that. Hell understands your life affects more than just you. You are interconnected with so many others…far more than you realize! Your life and how you live it will always influence others…always! The scary reality is that even after you die your life and thoughts are still influencing others for good or evil. Your life matters more than you realize, but Hell understands this and will attack you when you take a stand. Hell wants you to be content and average.
The more important the stand, the harder the attack will be. Deciding to lose weight versus deciding to change the way people in the Northeast think about Jesus will garner different levels of attack because they have a different level of significance. The struggle is real no matter what you do, but the greater the goal the greater the challenges.
So stand firm! Let nothing move you! Give yourself fully to this (1 Cor. 15:58). More people than you can imagine are counting on you to grow and get to the next level.
Stop saying tomorrow! Today is the day of salvation.
Question: Where do you find the struggle is real? Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
