Every year I participate in a church-wide fast. While each person's fast is customized, we are unified in our desire to draw closer to God. Yet when I prayed about what I personally needed to do, the heavens seemed silent. Eventually, I felt a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit about going deeper into a food plan I was attempting to implement as a lifestyle.
Inwardly I whined. Though successful with breakfast and lunch, the evening meal was a predictable crash and burn. The following day I would do fine again for breakfast and lunch, only to repeat the cycle of failure during and after the evening meal. Still, the gentle nudging reaffirmed itself, this time with the addition of a small voice saying I needed to give one hundred percent.
In response, I offered my own statistic of seventy percent. I was proud of seventy percent. I could maintain a reasonable level of comfort with that percentage. Then I received a vision of a professional athlete walking up to a coach and saying in all seriousness, "I can give you seventy percent." OUCH. The word picture revealed exactly how I was fighting the good fight. I squirmed with conviction as I realized staying in my comfort zone equaled lukewarm faith.
If there is an area of your life where you are not fighting through to the finish line, don’t be happy with the norm. Reach for one hundred percent. That stretch takes real effort, yet that's our race. Christ gave us everything we need to be successful. Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, won the race for us. Follow in His footsteps to victory.
Fight.
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Mary Pat Johns is currently a Bible teacher at Faith Family, a mega-church in Victoria, Texas. Her teaching venues include assignments for ladies’ Bible study and assisting her husband with their weekly Understanding God class. She also serves as an instructor for Destiny Bible Institute. A mother and grandmother, she lives with her husband and their miniature dachshund Ike, who runs the show.