Consistency (Consecration18 Devotion #2)

James 1:3–6 

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

So, let’s be real.  For most of us, fresh starts for the New Year have a lot more to do with January 2nd than they do January 1st.  Of course, that is to be expected.  You probably stayed up late on New Years Eve, and you may have slept in on New Years Day, then you got up and moved through the final day of the holiday season at a pace that won’t really match the rest of the week.  Thus, today may be your “real” start of a new year, and the changes you have intended.

Then again, there are also those who hit the ground running yesterday (some did so literally as you began a new exercise regime).  You implemented your changes.  You took control of each moment.  You seized the first day of the first week of the first month of the new year, and you actually feel pretty good about your great start.

Of course, there is that third group.  The group that all of us have belonged to a time or two.  You started yesterday well.  You got up with plans to take each moment and possess it for the glory of God.  You even made a few good decisions, and were doing well.  Yet, somewhere along the way you found yourself reverting to your old patterns, and by the end of the day you felt like a failure at this fresh start.

For all three groups, there is a common thread that will help you make the most of this beginning to your year.  You must understand that character can only be shaped through consistency.

Philippians 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Like the Apostle Paul, you must realize that the fullness of who God has made you to be will not be attained in a moment.  In fact, the moment we think we have “arrived” is the moment we cease to be what God would have us to be, for our heart must be set steadfastly on seeking him.

As we seek to be Consecrated unto God, we must realize the that Consecration is not about a moment of doing the right thing, nor is all hope destroyed by a moment of failure.  Rather, consecration occurs when we, again and again, make ourselves available for God’s purposes.  Maybe you have started the year making all the right decisions.  Perhaps, you started well, but already you have seen your old tendencies of not living fully to the glory of God coming back.  Possibly, you haven’t even begun.  Whatever your current state.  Understand that the key to finishing is consistency.

So, you wasted time, you broke your diet, you fell for that old habit, now what.  Get up, and give yourself to God, again.  Give yourself to God again, again, and again.  Decision by decision, action by action.

Give yourself to God.  Again.

Consecration is all about Consistency.