The power of stay

Do you ever feel like one day just runs right into the next day, without seeing any of the results that you’d hope to see? Do you ever feel like you’re just stuck or stuck on repeat?

Sometimes we just need to shift our focus and realign. Our hearts and minds have gotten out of whack like a body that needs readjusting. We must learn to ask ourselves some questions when this happens instead of simply just existing, hoping it’ll get better, and letting our lives coast on autopilot. We must go back to where and why we started and then realign accordingly. Sometimes we just need to stay the course until it passes and keep going if that’s what we know we need to do.

Is your eye on the prize (whatever it is that you hope to accomplish) and is your hand steadily on the plow to do the job in front of you?

Are you staying the course, or are you all over the place? Maybe you even feel as if you’re doing nothing to work toward your goals and have no clear aim or vision.

Maybe you don’t even know why but you just feel like all hell is coming against you.

Of course there is a time to go and to know when to leave a place or situation. There are times to move on, but there is never a time to leave the path that God has set before you or to shrink back from our faith. We don’t quit if we want to win. It’s all about the narrow way, not the easy way.

To see the results that we want, we first have to have a clear vision, get specific, and set goals accordingly. We must ask our Creator for vision because He created us for purpose and He knows what we do not know. We then have to stay the course as we gain small wins - one at a time. We have to break these goals into bite-size goals or else we’ll quit before we even begin. Our goals should align with the vision that we’re going towards and they must be taking us closer to achieving what we set out to do. Are we on the right track?

We have a real enemy and he is the enemy of our soul. He comes to distract and divert us from what really matters and from what is most important. He comes to get us tripped up, sidetracked, hopeless, and eventually derailed. This happens in many ways. We can combat and resist him.

God has a good plan for each of our lives. He created us all on purpose for a purpose. He says He knows the plans that He has for us and they are good. His plans are to help us and not to harm us. To give us hope and a future. We were not created to just spin our wheels and go nowhere. His plans are not to wear us out and down. That’s where the enemy comes in. That’s what the he comes to do and if we don’t battle right, we wear our own selves out.

Life may feel mundane and it may feel like nothing is adding up, but as long as you are doing your part and staying faithful in the little, it is adding up. Even if you don’t see it right away.

In Exodus, God drove the Israelite's enemies out little by little until suddenly….. they were all gone. Don’t discount what the little wins will do! Each goal checked off gets you one step closer to the vision. But you have to work towards it. It doesn’t just come to you.

Solomon realized that it was the small foxes that would ruin the whole vine eventually. If we let all the little stuff in and add up then they eventually become the big stuff. It’s a compounding effect but so is doing little things that matter. It’s the little things that will take over what really does matter if we aren’t careful. I remember the book, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” We must keep our eye on the bigger picture or we might forget our why. Will it all matter then, in the end? Then it shouldn’t matter or consume our time now. Yet we’ve all taken the bait but we don’t have to.

Things come at us every single day but we must learn how to combat them. If we give the enemy a foothold, he will eventually get in to take it all. He wants to ruin it for you. We gotta take care of those “little” foxes: the little life suckers, the little offenses, and the little distractions. These are the very things that will suck the life out of us if we let them and if we give too much attention to them. I know because it’s happened to me many times and I’m sure you as well.

It’s hard, I know. Sometimes, I feel like so distracted or lack vision, and it feels as if I am just existing. We were made for so much more than this and I don’t want to live it wasted. We must stay on guard to protect our peace, to protect our minds and to protect our time. We must stay the course and stay on track to what we set out to do and where we set out to go. But first, we must get clear again about what that is and why. The enemy comes to wear out the saints little by little and one blow at a time. Don’t let up! The way we win is to keep taking one piece of ground at a time until we have it all. Keep fighting the good fight or you’re in the wrong fight and fighting it all wrong. We can’t win like that. Get back in the right fight if you’re on the wrong track. It’s not too late.

So what about sin? The things we know we ought not but we do anyway. Doesn’t it get in our way as well? Yes. Yes, it does. We aren’t to take sin lightly or it’ll eventually weigh heavy. It’s the subtle things that we allow in that at first don’t seem like a big deal now but pretty soon, Wham! It’s got us. It’s what we don’t pay attention to or guard against that gets in. The enemy isn’t just looking for an invite or a crack but any hole in our life that we’ve left unguarded or unaware of. Stay on guard and watch, watchmen and women!

What we do keep our focus on, becomes our god. If we let sin in, eventually sin will rule. If we focus on fear, fear will rule and have its way. We steer where we stare. We all get our eyes off of God from time to time, and sometimes more often than not. It’s God that we must focus on and what He says. We must first surrender to Him. Only one god will rule, and it’s the Spirit or the flesh that will guide you. We cannot serve two masters. Jesus made that very clear. The one we give the most attention to will rule. Not just the one we want to. We must be intentional and proactive. When we walk in the flesh, we walk contradictory to God and His will, so therefore we aren’t obtaining our God hopes and desires.

Pretty soon, the days turn to years and so life passes us by! This is not the way that the precious gift of life was meant to be lived. Day by day and little by little, our lives become a whole sum of what we do every single day.

Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Don’t discount what the little wins can do. Stay diligent and vigilant. Slow and steady wins the race. Don’t quit. The very things that we neglect can be the very things that conquer us. The little things add up and will all eventually become our wins or our downfall. Which outweighs? If we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, It’s time to set it right.

A sculptor sculpts a beautiful masterpiece one chisel at a time. He knows what he wants to create before he even starts to chisel, but in order to have the end result that he wishes, he must see it through. It all begins and ends in the heart and mind. We gotta finish what we start. No one else can do this for you. What has God called YOU to do?? I doubt that anyone reading this hasn’t had a dream at one time or another and lots have forgotten and given up on them. We sculpt our dreams out one chisel at a time. One day at a time. At first, it feels as if it’s making no difference or impact, but eventually, you’ll see as it all starts coming together. We all should be living accordingly to wanting to hear these final words: “Well done My good and faithful servant.” Are we living, walking, and working accordingly? It’s time to get your vision back.

He who is faithful with the little will also be faithful in much more. We cannot and should not expect to be given more if we are not faithful in what we’ve been given. What is in your hand to use right now? That’s all He expects from you and to begin. Bigger opportunities will come the more you use and utilize what you have been given. On the same token: he who is unfaithful in smaller matters, will be even more unfaithful in larger ones. Can God trust you in the little?! A selfish person who is greedy with little, will be a monster with much.

• If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small. Proverbs 24:10

Don’t throw in the towel. Keep chiseling away at the one thing. It matters! Keep on swinging, one hit at a time until you win. You must stick with it. The Bible says don’t lose heart because anything worth doing requires heart. Anything worth doing must be done with hard work, dedication, commitment, and heart. It requires determination and laser focus to stay the call. It’s called staying power… Stay with it and you won’t lose. It’s the power of stay.

• And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:9

He who’s faithful over the little will be in charge of much more one day. It’s not all about the rewards down here. It’s the little stuff that everyone else discounts that we should be excellent in. We should aim to please God Who sees it all and will one day judge it all. If you do everything that you do with excellence, eventually everything that you do will be excellent. How we do anything, is how we do everything. It takes heart and attitude and our attitudes can definitely make or break the deal.

It’s what we do when no one else is looking that gets us noticed, “eventually”. If you quit too soon, you forfeit. It’s what God sees that matters. When everyone else at the office is raising their hands, smooth-talking, and saying, “Pick me, pick me”, you stay! Remain faithful. We don’t have to beg or plead our way in. We don’t have to go about it wrong to get the right results. These are the ones that usually rise quickly but fall even faster because there is no foundation. No truth or realness on which to stand. It’s the ones who stay who will remain and stand out, eventually. The first will be last and the last first, one day! Do right, right now.

In today’s day and age, we want everything quickly but as the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Everything has a beginning and that beginning looks like the bottom, yet that’s where the real strength is built.

Without a vision we are just looking at a blank slate of possibilities but never experiencing most of them. Use that slate to imagine. No matter how old or young, you have purpose and meaning if you’re still alive, and you are! The Bible says that without vision man perishes. Don’t let the dream die inside of you. There’s nothing worse than untapped potential and I’ve lived a lot of my life doing just that and as a result ended up very frustrated and unfulfilled. It starts by just beginning and one step at a time. The man or woman who has no vision has nothing to go towards and is just slowly dying inside. Don’t just be on a treadmill to nowhere bound. Get off of that! You and I were created for so much more and we’ve come too far to turn back now.

Every house is built from the ground up, not from the top down. If God wants to advance you, He will. Just stay the course. Hard work is still a thing. Don’t be like everyone else if you really want to stand out. Don’t just go for instant gratification because it won’t last…

Consider Joseph who was sold out by his brothers and into slavery, imprisoned, then promoted just to turn around and be demoted. Eventually, he was put over the whole land's food supply but this took years. He could have EASILY given up and thought that he was forgotten about, but he stayed. He could have went along with deceit and excelled but he wouldn’t have stayed or been blessed.

He stayed faithful in the daily and in the mundane when no one else noticed or saw him. But God did. He knew Whose he was and Who did notice. He knew what was inside of him: greatness. I’m sure he never forgot about the dream or vision that God had shown to him many years before all of this took place. He probably never lost sight of it even though he had many opportunities to. I feel like it’s what kept him going and hanging on.

I’m sure that there were days when Joseph was discouraged, to say the least. There were probably days that he was barely hanging on by a thread or even wanted to throw in the towel and give up. But he remained faithful. We know this because of his end. God will show us enough to keep us believing and something to believe for.

It’s not always how you began that you can be proud of, but you can be proud of how you end. It’s the power of stay.

By the way, Joseph sharing his dream with his brothers didn’t seem like the brightest idea but it was to be this way in order for him to be sold out and go to Egypt as a slave. This is where the food supply was and the very place that the dream would play out. You may be in the pit now, but God can advance you if you remain faithful. They might have meant it for your harm, but God meant it for your good and He is working all things out for that good. We don’t always feel it and it doesn’t always seem like it, but that doesn’t make it not true.

Not everyone will be excited about your dreams and revelations. Joseph’s brothers were very jealous of him, so be careful who you share your visions with. Sometimes it’s better to keep your head down and work. Let the work and results speak for themselves.

• Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.

• For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end, it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

• "See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright-- but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness --Habakkuk 2:2-4

Joseph had a spirit of excellence. He had chances to sin while no one was looking but again, he refused. Eventually… he was put in charge of all that and more. A suddenly doesn’t just happen all of the sudden. They are sometimes years in the making but in one instant everything can shift. But you must stay the course.

Be reminded again that small wins lead to huge victories. Don’t give up, don’t give in, don’t quit. Stay. There is power in stay, in commitment, and in enduring. No one ever said that it would be easy but it would be worth it. Just look at some of the men and women who are successful and that you admire the most. Most of them probably have a pretty harsh backstory. But, Not every one that competes will play fair or finish. My dad always says that everyone wants big but they aren’t willing to put in the work that it takes to get there. They aren’t willing to do the little things that add up to that big. It’s easy to want what someone else has but chances are, you won’t want to go through the hell that they had to endure and how they had work to get there.

• "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” Matthew 24:13

Take courage. Stand in your faith or you won’t stand at all because the just shall live by his faith. Without faith, we can’t please God. Seek Him and His will. The more you seek, the more you will find.

A mother who becomes pregnant with a child, doesn’t see the results immediately though she can feel the change. Yet, she is pregnant with a child that she will eventually see and hold. She takes care of her body so that the dream baby that is forming inside of her will fully develop. She continues to feel the change and eventually, it becomes full-term. She then feels the pains of labor and her suddenly moment comes. Everything has a due date, a due time.

Like being pregnant with a baby, God impregnates us with dreams and visions but we must believe in them and prepare for them as a mother does a child. We are stretched and changed and sometimes that is uncomfortable and even painful but necessary to grow. Change is never found in the comfort zone but outside of it. We don’t prepare when it comes, we prepare before it comes for what we are expecting. How are we preparing or lacking to prepare?

To have something we’ve never had, we must do something that we’ve never done, and sometimes that’s simply believing. We need to believe in order to work with God. Don’t try to make them come to fruition prematurely. They won’t. Remember Sarah and Abraham trying to conceive on their own what God alone had promised? This was something only He could perform. Some things are supernatural but in all of it, God expects us to cooperate with Him. Like Mary when she was told that she’d carry the Savior of the world. She believed and it was fulfilled. We are vessels and carriers of the promise but in order to cooperate, we must believe and stay the course.

• “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” Luke 1:45

Let’s treasure the gifts that He has placed in us like we would treasure a child. Let’s prepare our hearts to seek Him and continue to cooperate, obey, prepare and believe in order to receive. The Christian life is not an easy life but nothing worth having comes easy. We were made to battle. (Ephesians 6)

Jesus had many opportunities to sin. He had many oppose Him and He was even beaten and killed, yet all without sinning. He held His peace often and He corrected in a Godly manner when needed. He took every moment in His daily walk as an opportunity to learn and to teach what He had learned. He came as a baby in the flesh and grew into a man. He grew in wisdom and in stature. That means He learned as He went even though He was God in the flesh. He humbled Himself to come as a man and to walk in our shoes. He was the perfect example of putting your money where your mouth is. God doesn’t expect anything out of us that Jesus didn’t have to face or grow through. He overcame. So can we because now He doesn’t just tell us to do this but He has sent down His Spirit to reside inside of you believer. His power! Do you believe it?

You can’t put the cart before the horse and expect to go forward. There is an order that requires stay. Stay the course, keep the faith, fight the good fight. One day at a time.

Stay in the game. Stay in your lane and you won’t get sidetracked. Get your head back in the game and keep your eye on your prize. You got a race to win.

Put your hand to the plow, and put your blinders on for the purpose to focus on what you need to do. Distractions will come but we must learn to not let them sidetrack us or take us out. We must stay alert, focused and of a single heart and mind.

Don’t stumble over your own attitude, humble yourself like Jesus and God will lift you up at the right time. You are not forgotten, just the opposite is true. God is sharpening you for His great use. He can never forget you, you are His. You are His creation and your name is engraved on His hand. You are always before Him.

• Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15

You just need to realize “WHOse” you are and then you can have the will to go on; when you know Who is for and inside of you. You are His. That’s who you are.

In this microwave mentality world of I want it and I want it now, we need some men and women who are willing to roll up their sleeves, do hard work, and endure. Those after us need to see a model of Jesus. When times are tough the tough get going instead of tucking tail and throwing in the towel or running away. It’s easy and natural to want to give up.

• Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Ecclesiastes 7:8

Get back on the right track and STAY.