“Consistency”
It’s easy to be “on fire for the Lord” when we are in the midst of life’s extremes.
Often when we experience a blessing from God that we have been waiting for or when He hides our shame or brings us through calamity once again, we can’t stop praising His name and telling others our testimony.
When we go through heart-wrenching experiences, when we are disappointed or feeling alone, we earnestly seek God for understanding, for the strength to overcome.
However, during the “in-between time”—the seasons when our lives are neither overly happy nor in deep despair—we get lazy when it comes to God.
What we need in our lives can be summed up in one word:
Consistency.
One definition says that to be consistent means “holding to the same principles or practice.”
For Christians, that means studying God’s Word and listening for His voice just as fervently during the uneventful seasons of our lives as during those situations that seem urgent.
Consistency in praying and studying the Bible is often difficult because we don’t realize that we need to “hear” from God every day. I have often said during those extreme seasons, “I need a Word from the Lord.”
The problem with that line of thinking is that we always need a Word from the Lord—not just when we have an “emergency.”
When our prayer life wanes and becomes inconsistent, we weaken our connection with the Heavenly Father because we aren’t talking or listening to Him as we should. We fall out of fellowship with our God who is always faithful and unchanging toward us. Psalm 102:25-27 assures us of that:
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. You remain the same, and your years will never end.
As we strive to be more and more like Christ, one word we must keep in our hearts and minds is consistency, knowing that without it, we can never be true reflections of a God who is always there, waiting for us to come to Him, a God who never changes.
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About the Author
Sharon Tubbs has been a professional journalist for 11 years and is the founder of Christian Writers of Tampa Bay, a monthly educational and support group in Tampa, Fla. Her book Milk & Honey: 10 Principles to Embracing Your Promised Land was recently released and is available through her website at www.EmbraceYourLand.com. It can also be ordered at most major bookstores. Sharon Tubbs can be reached at EmbraceYourLand@verizon.net.
Copyright 2007 Sharon Tubbs. All rights reserved.
