Study it, Say it, Do it. Repeat it.
Scripture Reading: James 1:25
Let me tell you another thing that the enemy knows that many are just finding out. In fact, many haven’t even found this one out yet, to be honest.
What is that thing? Simple. In consistency, lies the power.
In consistency lies the power.
This means that the devil knows that he doesn’t need to douse you with black ink at once to make your heart dark. He only needs a drop of ink a day.
There’s this interesting thing that is observable. Drop a little ink in a large bowl of clear water. You may probably notice it the moment it touches the water, but after that, the ink succumbs to peer pressure and starts to resemble its fellow liquid molecules. Continue that for a minute, and the results might still be the same. However, continue that for an hour, and the water would have changed colour drastically until then.
Our adversaries don’t need us to be unready all the time. They only need us to be unready once. They don’t need us to give the wrong answer to their queries every time. They only need us to give the wrong answer once. From there, they can get you twice, and three times, and four times….
Example?
Look at Samson. For every time he was able to escape the philistines’ ambush, there was another challenge coming, just waiting for him to slip up.
I always use the example of a lecturer who repeats quiz questions. Maybe by now, you know all the verbatim answers to the questions in the quiz. Now, you know what would be really foolish? Getting tired of writing those same answers (that you already know are correct). Imagine you just said once, “This professor has repeated these questions a little too much. I don’t think I’m going to keep indulging him by providing the right answers”, then I guess you can kiss success goodbye.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. It doesn’t matter how many times life asks you the same questions. What matters is how many times you responded with the right answer.
Water weathers a rock by continuity. Not just brute force, but that force in the same direction for years and decades and centuries. That’s how river paths are forged, that is how erosion happens too.
Why I’m starting on this note is because I want to admonish us all to not get tired of learning, saying and practicing the truth. There’s a reason scripture says he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
A person who didn’t kill anybody for the first 70 years of his life would still be called a murderer if he does a killing in his twilight years.
It is not who starts the game that gets the prize, it’s he who completes the mission.
Remember the parable of the ones who received the word among thorns? They received it with joy and gladness in their hearts, but the moment life’s tribulations came, they got offended and fell off. That is like sowing, but not cultivating.
Remember the people who missed out because they knew not the time of their visitation (Luke 19:44)? That’s like sowing, cultivating and not harvesting.
This journey is about understanding continuity. And what helps our continuity? Consistency.
In a marathon race, one of the things that helps you is your consistency. Sprint races are over in seconds. The fastest almost always wins. And, the fastest can most definitely not maintain that pace for 4 miles! However, marathons don’t require you to come out of the gates like Usain Bolt. You must be steady.
Having the understanding that the journey of christianity is a marathon and not a sprint is very important. Many of us treat it like a sprint.
I myself am guilty of this too! Sometimes I spend hours in a day reading the word and meditating on scripture. And then I go off for a few days until the next fellowship gathering or something before I even cautiously have an in-depth view of the word.
But what we have to understand is that it is better to commit 5 minutes a day consistently for 30 days, than 2 hours 30 minutes in one day and nothing else for the next 29 days. (This is merely an illustration. Frankly, five minutes is too small. “Meditate therein day and night”. Committing five minutes a day to honing a craft won’t get you where you want to be in it, so why would you think it would be enough to renew your entire mind?!)
Because just because you meditated/thought on it longer today doesn’t mean that it automatically becomes a part of your thought process the next morning. You still have to pick up another scripture to meditate upon.
The reason why this consistency is so important is that it is what helps us to “continue therein”.
“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 1:25 KJV
And do you know why it is important to look into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein? Because if not, we cannot become doers of the work, and if we cannot become doers of the work, we are wasting our time here.
Jesus questions the validity of our followership/love if we are not willing to do what he said; what he did.
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
According to the scripture above, we are not in love with God if we are not keeping his commandments. All those feelings and expressions that are not “keeping his commandments” are for your entertainment. What qualifies us as lovers of God is our willingness and ability to do his command.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure — Philippians 2:13
And the word of God is God Himself — John 1:1
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63
So there is no way we can do what God says if His word does not dwell richly in us. Meaning there is no way we can love Him if we don’t learn about Him from his word.
This makes perfect sense. John acknowledged the fact that a human being who hates his neighbour cannot claim to love God. 1 John 4:20 “for he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
Meaning love is not just in words, but in consistent action. God told us to love our neighbour as we love self. A commandment.
We need to be consistent. Because, quite literally, in consistency lies the power.
So, our consistency in reading the word, saying the word, and doing the word, ultimately lead to us reaping the word.
2 Tim 2:6
The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
Galatians 6:9
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
If we faint not.
So, this is something that even the enemy knows, at least in his own devilish ways! He knows that if he can continue in his wanderings, he will find some lamb that is out of its flock.
He knows that all he has to do is come tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after the next.
So what can help us in our continuity? Our consistency?
Well. My answer is grace and discipline.
We already know that His grace has been given to us in all-sufficiency (2 Corinthians 12:9)
So I’m guessing that, just like me, your problem is probably discipline too!
The tendency of every system is to descend into chaos. This means that you have to continue making constant and consistent decisions to steer yourself in the direction you want to move toward. There will never be time to read your Bible, even in the morning before work. You will always be “too busy”. But you’ll never be too busy to eat! Never be too busy to use the bathroom (I know I know, both are not your choice). Most of us aren’t even too busy to do stuff that isn’t that life-important, like watching movies, using social media, or talking to a friend. I sometimes imagine to myself, if only studying and speaking the word was just as important to my day as eating a meal, what a difference that would make! And even though there may not be biological hunger pangs and triggers to force us to see reading the word to be as important as eating food, we can still pant and thirst after God by our own selves (Psalm 63:1 -> O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;).
There is a reason that it takes discipline to do anything worthwhile in this world. It’s because it is pretty darn difficult to stumble on success. It’s pretty darn difficult to accidentally start a life routine that helps you stay in shape, health, and sharpness. It so difficult to live the life that would change your life! The default is so easy, but it is seldom worth it. Many have to be beaten down to a pulp before they take spiritual responsibility because that was simply the only way left. They had hit rock bottom.
Another thing that could really change our lives is prayer. The Bible tells us that he that speaketh in tongues edifies himself. That’s powerful. Praying in tongues is our best bet to living a separated, consecrated and disciplined life.
Personal responsibility and prayerfulness should go in tandem if you want to be able to separate yourself and continue therein. We are very fortunate as New Testament christians! Some of our predecessors in the Old Testament had to do it on their own because they didn’t have the Holy Spirit sent to them like we do.
But why is it this way? Why is it so hard to do what is good for us? To continue therein?
I don’t know. All I know is, it’s always been this way.
Nobody eats once and expects to never go hungry again. Nobody washes clothes once and expects to never do it again. Nobody weeds their farmland once, and expects the weeds to take a hint and realise they are not wanted.
That’s why, if you’ve ever said the truth once, you must be able to say it again. There’s no point saying it once if you can’t say it twice. Because the liars (the devil, the enemy, adversary) are willing to say the lie as many times as possible.
Matthew 29:5, buy the truth and sell it not.
Continue with God, and be rewarded for your good labour in due season!
