Common Quit #2: It's Too Hard

When Doing The Right Thing For Your Health Feels Too Hard

"No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God's Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture." Donald S. Whitney

Thinking about what I want to write to you this week, I am thinking back on all the responses given to me as to why many of you know you need to improve your health but don't do it. Many is not an exaggeration. Many are the majority of you. Right now, about 70% of people aren't feeling great as they battle at least one chronic illness, while the number of undiagnosable illnesses often thrown into the bucket of auto-immune disease continues to climb. So many people were honest with themselves and me when they said they lack discipline because improving their health is uncomfortable and hard. 

As we head into the weekend, I have some thoughts about the common quit: It's too hard.

First off, are you a Christian who reads God's word? I know, I know. It seems so obvious and silly to ask. Still, my spirit tells me that the same people who say it's too hard to do the best thing for their health also sit under the beliefs that reading God's word is too hard to understand, hard to make time to do, and when they do make time to read God's word they don't feel any big pay-off in their inner-being so why continue? And we're back to what's really going on…war. The war for our heart starts in our mind and our body becomes a daily casualty UNLESS we fight the good fight of faith. 

We can not fight the good fight without knowing God's voice, which we familiarize ourselves with in His word.

Our struggle with our body, flesh, and blood, is the consequence of us forsaking fellowship with God. Without God everything seems impossible, hard and not worth it.

God doesn't want you to know the Bible to read, know, and memorize words. He wants us to know the Bible so we can know Him and attune to HIs voice in and throughout our days. 

It's so wild to think that the God who created ALL things invites all people to come to know Him. We are invited to know Him like a lover and a friend. We won't be able to know and grow in love with God God unless we get to know Him through His word. Without the love of God, it's impossible to truly know ourselves and love ourselves (body, soul, and spirit) as God does. It's through knowing God's crazy love for us that surpasses our understanding that we are compelled to make a change. It's His love that compels us to make change. When we know God loves us, we live loved, and hard things don't seem so hard. When we read God's word, we feed the Holy Spirit that lives in our bodies with the milk and the meat of God's word, filled with Truth and Love. When we are powered by the Holy Spirit doing hard things becomes a privilege, not a problem.

It’s funny how rare it is for us to skip a meal for fear of feeling hungry and having low energy, yet we go days, or weeks without eating the milk and the meat of God’s word. Our Spirits are starved for fuel needed to face all the difficult things.

If you're not in God's word right now, I have some simple ideas to spark your joy of knowing God through His word.

1.Pray. Ask God to give you a hunger for His word. James says if any of you lack wisdom, ask. Ask the Lord to give you whatever it is you need to fall in love with Him through His word. Get honest with why you don't read the word, then ask God to give you whatever you need to fight the lie that keeps you from God's word.

2.K.I.S.S. - keep it simple, silly. Write down and read one passage of Scripture over and over for one week. Satan is the one who is causing you trouble and keeping you from falling in love with God. One of his favorite go-to tactics is pressure and overwhelm. He loves throwing around heavy yokes. Who says you have to read the whole Bible in one year? You don't even have to read something new every day. Pick one passage of Scripture to fall in love with. If you're looking for a place to start regarding your body, start with this one to read, pray, and meditate on. You're probably familiar with it but don't KNOW it.

"Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you an was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

3. Three Questions - Ask yourself three questions when engaging with Scripture: What does this passage teach me about God? What does this passage teach me about me? What is His voice asking me to do? 

4. Break The Quiet Time Box - Ask God what you could do to make Scripture come alive for you. You may like to color or draw or doodle. Do that while engaging the word. Or try going for a walk while thinking about your passage of Scripture and answering those questions. PRO TIP: Verbalize. Use your voice when talking with God. Seriously, no one is listening. Your neighbors will think you're just on the phone talking to someone. Studies show that people who talk out loud about what they are thinking about increase their ability to handle discomfort and pain. This takes us back to why I wanted to write this post: to help you escape the lie that doing the right thing is too hard. 

If we don't fall in love with the God who gives us the gift of His word we won't stand a chance at doing the right hard things.

Comment below. I would love to know if my hunch was right or wrong regarding the correlation between not being a regular consumer of the word and feeling an aversion to doing hard things. I have some other thoughts for those of us who do read daily but still resist the hard and that has more to do with our busy brains and trauma recovery. But since only 9% of Christians read their bible every day, I thought to start with the 91%.

His love,

Alisa

PS. If you’re ready to face your discomforts and sink deep into the love of God and His love for your body, in a safe healing community, join me for our last completely virtual class of instructor training. Learn how to lead your own life and body into healing, health, and freedom. Class starts February 18th. Sign-ups close February 14th.