It’s amazing how easy it is sometimes to become complacent a give in to laziness… This came to mind recently as I was spending a week of good weather clearing my back garden.
Months before this I was getting rid of my old, weed filled, lawn and planting a new one…I’d cut it back and sprayed everything with weedkiller so that, once dead, it would be easier to dig over and plant the new lawn. That’s as far as I got… What started as strong motivation became distraction; Distraction lead to laziness. Over the months that followed weeds regrew, and the longer I left it the worse it became; Tackling it had gone from being an easy and quick job to a difficult one. And the sad thing is, it was completely preventable.
Are there other things in life that we let get like this too? Like gifts that God has given us that we are excited about at first and start strong with, but then distraction and laziness come. Maybe fear even creeps in. The longer we go without using these gifts the more daunting it can become to go back to them.
I know this is at least true for me with some spiritual gifts. Not long ago I spent a year learning about and practicing hearing from God; speaking out what He was saying to people. During that time I grew more confident and enjoyed using gifting like healing and prophecy. But, that year finished and I didn’t pursue them; My confidence in my ability to hear from God started to lessen. After a while I’d even got to the point of shying away from situations in church, with my friends and out on the streets where I used to use them!
But God is so good despite this; He kept giving me opportunities and encouragement to step out and try it again, even when I didn’t want them! Only a few weeks ago I ended up, unexpectedly, in a few situations where I got to prophesy over people and, even in the midst of my (hopefully not obvious) fear, God spoke!
Are there gifts that have become ‘overgrown’ in your life? It doesn’t mean that God’s finished using you in that way to make a real difference to those around you, or that you can’t rekindle your original passion. Right now He’s just waiting for you to give it another go so He can show you what you’ve been missing out on and bless those around you!