September 22 – A Little Every Day
Dear Marisa,
«Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.»
(Luke 13:18-19)
If you’re going to grow in the kingdom of God, you’re going to do it just like a seed that’s been planted in the ground. How does a seed grow? All at once? No, it grows constantly– 24 hours a day–a little all the time until it accomplishes what it was created to do.
Many of us don’t operate that way spiritually. We study and pray very hard for a few days and then quit. Then, when some disaster comes, we make a mad attempt to pray and stand on the Word, all the while realizing that, for some reason, we’re just not as strong as we ought to be.
There’s no such thing as an overnight success in the kingdom of God! Real strength, real growth comes as you consistently and constantly keep the Word before your eyes, in your ears, and in the midst of your heart. Not just when you want to or when you feel like it, but constantly, like the seed, a little all the time.
A man came up to me once and said, «Man, your ministry just took off overnight, didn’t it?»
«If it did,» I answered, «it was certainly the longest night I ever spent in my life!»
From his perspective my success did seem to spring up quickly. That’s because he didn’t see me during all those hours and weeks and months and years I spent in the Word of God. He didn’t see the daily process that lay behind that success. He just saw the results.
Make up your mind to begin that daily process of constant growth today. Determine to start putting the Word in your heart consistently. Every day a line here, a line there–a tape here, a tape there.
Begin to act as though that Word is true every hour of the day regardless of what comes or how you feel. Keep adding to your faith, meditating on it, confessing it, seven days a week.
Eventually, your faith will be bigger than you ever dreamed it could be.
