Little by Little

Today is weigh in Wednesday!  Start weight: 266 lbs.  Last Week: 257 lbs.  Today: 256 lbs.

I only lost one pound.  Yet, I have done well this week with my prayer, my faith, my self-control.  Still, my reward is one pound.  I want to be discouraged, but I refuse.

The world looks at things differently than God does.  The world would judge me and decide that I haven’t done well this week, but a pound is heading in the right direction.  Yes, sometimes God does instant miracles, but more often than not, He’s interested in slow, permanent change.

I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.  Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and you inherit the land. Exodus 23:29-30 NKJV

Little by little.  In our instant results world we have no patience anymore.  When you read the bible and find that people regularly travelled for days to get from point A to point B.  Craftsmen were expected to take years to learn their craft.  Moses waited like thirty years between his call to deliver Israel from Egypt and facing Pharaoh.  Paul did not start his missionary journeys until about ten years after his conversion in Damascus.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

God is preparing me for something here.  He’s making sure that I, my faith, has increased.  And my relationship with Him is solid before I inherit the land He has prepared from me.  He doesn’t want my victory to be desolate – and the “beasts” of pride and self-satisfaction to overcome the glory that my Father should receive in this.  If I lose weight too quickly, won’t I become self-satisfied, pat myself on the back and become proud of what I have accomplished?

Why should I be dissatisfied with one pound in a week?  If I lost one pound per week for a year, that’s 52 lbs!  Wouldn’t I be happy to lose 52 lbs, even if it takes a year?  Of course I would.  I don’t need instant results.  I need permanent ones.

No, God wants me to be patient.  He’s doing this amazing work in me, and He will work it to completion.

I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 HCSB