Pandemic Chronicles #26: Feb 2021 Challenge...Behave and not just believe

I'm a fitness trainer so I absolutely LOVE challenges. 

The best part of a challenge is completing it and coming away from it with new skills and more confidence that I can push myself.

If you want to be successful with challenges, the secret is to focus on COMPLETING THE CHALLENGE and NOT JUST FOCUSING on the outcome.  

Your outcome will depend on so many variables that you cannot control but what can you do?  You can COMPLETE the challenge to the best of your ability.

For example, if you're doing a fitness challenge the keys to success are adopting new lifestyle routines such as grocery shopping, meal preparation, finding the right time of day to consistently work out, and getting better at challenging exercises. 

As you move through the challenge, you are seeing improvements and this will give you the motivation to push through to finish the challenge.

People who enter challenges to just focus on how much weight they're losing tend to be discouraged easily and drop out because they aren't interested in the process and building a new lifestyle.  They just want the results and sadly these people go from one quick fix to another seeking results without building skills and confidence.  

Just completing something does wonders for your confidence.  

I believe many of us are like this in our spiritual lives as well. We focus on results without building our lifestyle of faith.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24

Many of us pray but we don't really believe that we have really received it.  If we did, then we would behave differently.  We would take actions that reflected that we believed we received what we asked for in prayer.

Childlike Faith...

My friend Patrice gave a word of encouragement the other day for us to have childlike faith and to trust God and rest in Him.

This got me thinking about how children really believe what they want is possible.  For them, it is totally realistic to be able to fly so they don't think twice about jumping off of things or they think they can walk to the ends of the earth so they start packing their bags. 

What about us?  We pray about things and don't do anything that shows we believe that God has answered us.

If you've prayed and God has not told you to do anything specific, then that's your word. 

This blog post is for people who have prayed and know there are actions of faith that the Lord has called you to.

 Biblical Examples of Action

God told Abram (Abraham) that he would have a lot of descendants. He did not say "Well you're gonna have a lot of descendants so just kick your feet up and wait here."  

No Abram had to leave his homeland and not even know where he was going.

The Apostle Paul was set apart by God as a messenger to the Gentiles but God didn't say, "Paul just kick your feet up here and be ready to teach the people because If we build it, then they will come." Paul was sent all over to proclaim the gospel and the Kingdom of God.

Even Jesus was not sent to the Earth to sit in his Jerusalem office and wait for the people to figure out He was the Son of God and whether or not they wanted to listen to Him.  Jesus traveled all over to spread the good news about the Kingdom of God.  

Jesus was in action.

Contemporary Examples

Pastor Violent Kiteley had an idea to build a Church in Oakland that would have different races and cultures worshipping together.  She didn't tell God, "This a great idea!  I can't wait to see how you're going to pull this off.  You just let me know what I can do."

Pastor Violet left Canada and along with her son started teaching Bible Study in the home of a Black family and Shiloh Church was born.  55 years later we are still getting started.

Mark Batterson had one failed church plant under his belt when he decided to come to DC to plant another church.  He did a Prayer Walk around DC and today National Community Church is a world-changing church in our Nation's Captial. 

Pastor Mark even prayed about turning a crackhouse into a coffee shop to serve the neighborhood.

He didn't say, "Wow God...that's great. I'll just be over here at Starbucks while you build that place."

No, he prayed and then got busy learning about zoning laws and taking action to get Ebeneezer's coffee house built. I can't wait to go and have a cup of coffee at Ebeneezer's!

My Challenge....Get Off Social Media

Normally I take a social media break while doing the Daniel Fast in January.  This year I did well until January 6 (The Capitol Insurrection) and then forget it.  I was back on social media with full force and I couldn't get myself off.

As the month progressed, I realized how much I did not even enjoy social media but I was constantly scrolling. I was addicted but I really wanted a distraction.

I got the hunch that I needed to get off social media for the month of February.  I was going to focus on my writing.  I've invested in a Writing program for Christian authors and I want to focus on becoming a better writer.  

By the way, this is a great example of focusing on the process and not the outcome.  By participating in the writing program, I am sure to become a better writer because I will be practicing and applying what I learn.  If I was simply focused on being published, then I would miss all the benefits of applying myself and learning new skills in a writing course.

There is another reason I had the hunch to get off social media: To Focus on starting OUR relationship without distractions.

"What relationship?" I thought to myself. "There is no relationship to focus on. This is silly"

Or is it

In December 2020 I fasted and prayed for 21 Days with other ladies for my husband. I've grown more suspicious, anxious, and fearful about this actually happening so I tried running away by pretending that I was going to pray into whether or not to join Christian Mingle by the end of the fast.

Luckily my friend was on to me and knew that I was trying to come up with excuses because I was afraid that this may actually FINALLY happen...and oh my gosh then what will I do?

I will trust God.

So there is my February 2021 challenge: I'm going off social media in order to focus on my writing and also to focus on the beginning of our relationship.  Even though I don't see it yet, I'm doing the prophetic act to show that I am standing in faith that it is going to happen.

What if it doesn't happen?

At least I tried.

That's really my answer because I don't have any control over the outcome.

I was willing to risk it and say I'm willing to stand in faith and trust God.  This beats sitting around complaining and grumbling or living in fear.  If nothing else, then my faith will grow.   I was willing to say, "I prayed and I believed it was mine so I took a step of faith with my actions. As a result, my trust in God grew because I was willing to step out of the boat to find out."

My Challenge this month is to: Behave and not just Believe

At least I tried y'all.