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I know what to do. I just don't do it.

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13 (KJV)

 

A lot of people think God is standing there waiting on them to get motivated.

Like He handed you a list and stepped back, and now He's watching to see whether you'll finally want it bad enough.

You know what you should be doing. Read the Bible. Pray more than a minute. Get up earlier. Call your mom back. You knew all of that a month ago and you still haven't moved, and by now you've started to wonder if something is wrong with you.

Look at what Paul actually says God is doing in you. Both to will and to do.

Will means the wanting. Do means the moving. Paul says God is at work on both of them, which means the desire you keep hoping will show up is something He produces in you, not something you work up and bring Him.

That's the part people miss and beat themselves up over for years.

You've been treating the wanting like the entry fee. Like you've got to show up already fired up, and until then you're disqualified.

Anyone who has put a seed in the dirt knows how this goes. You cover it, you water it, and for a long stretch the ground looks exactly like it did before. Nothing up top. If you dug it up to check, you'd kill it. All the work is happening underneath where you can't see it, and the only thing being asked of you is to leave it alone and keep watering.

That's what He's doing in you right now while you feel like nothing is happening.

God isn't waiting on you to want it. He's the one who puts the wanting there. It's all His doing. You're not the engine.

So you aren't disqualified, and you were never behind. Sitting there feeling nothing doesn't mean He stopped, it just means you can't see under the dirt yet, which is exactly where He does most of His work.

He doesn't walk off on people halfway.

Here's what to do with a day you don't want to start:

1. Ask Him for the wanting.

Keep it real. Tell Him you don't want to and you'd like to want to. That's an authentic prayer, and it's asking Him for the exact thing He said He gives.

2. Make it small enough for your worst day.

One verse, not a chapter. Two minutes, not an hour. Then hook it onto something you already do, the coffee or the drive to work, so it never depends on you remembering it or feeling like it. This will help you stay consistent.

3. When you miss, start again that same day.

You're going to miss. Missing was never the thing that killed it. Waiting until Tuesday was. Pick it back up that afternoon and tell Him you're back, and don't spend one minute apologizing for the gap.

PRAYER

My God, I've been sitting still for a while and I know it.

I've been waiting to feel ready, and it hasn't come.

Thank You that You work in me to will and to do, and that You start with the part I can't start myself.

Thank You that Jesus finished the work my standing with You rests on, so none of this is me earning my way back.

Today I bring You the wanting I don't have.

Grow it in me while I'm not looking.

Give me one small true thing to do, and let me be satisfied with that.

I trust that You're working under the ground I can't see.

In Jesus' wonderful name we pray. Amen.