Starting a new project always carries with it a certain excitement–the craft kit you picked up at the store, the quilt you know you’ll finish by Christmas, the home renovation project that you’re finally going to do. Whatever it is, the new supplies and the vision of the finished work promise that the work will be worth the hours spent working, the attention to detail, and the perseverance needed to carry it to completion.
But we all know what all too often happens. We lose interest halfway through or we get busy with life activities. Our project sits half-finished, buried under a pile of kids’ school projects or staring back at you with piles of screws and a drill that hasn’t been touched in a while. Glimpses of it bring a sting of disappointment. Seeing a new project with it’s shiny photos and bright colors next time we walk through the craft aisle at the store tempts us to forget what we were working on and start something new.
There is, however, a certain tenacity and perseverance that begins to develop in us when we choose instead to pick up the started project and begin again, purposing to continue, even if we’ve forgotten where we left off. We throw off the spirit of “just give up” and exchange it for patience and resilience.
In the same way, in our walk with God, we often are given assignments from Him, purposes that we set to fulfill, and habits we determine to conquer. We lose focus, allow the enemy to distract us, become lazy, or allow the hardships of life to pull us away from what He wanted us to do. We look back at what we started with remorse and too often decide to just abandon it and walk away.
In this day, and in this hour, the Lord is inviting you to begin again. His mercies are new every morning! There is grace in the beginning and in the beginning again. He has not retracted his calling on your life. He still remembers those assignments he gave you, and he lovingly calls you back to that place where grace and surrender meet in fulfillment and fruitful harvest.
He’ll give you grace to overcome that habit and the courage to write that message. The next step of the vision he put in your heart will be made clear to you. He’ll bring you the people he wants you to minister to. He’ll show you the way and bless your efforts as you yield yourself fully to Jesus and pick up your cross and follow him.
Condemnation will lift as forgiveness and love flow freely. Relationships will be healed, and character will be developed. Lives will be changed and passion revived. There will be joy as you begin again.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6 .
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1
• What is something that you once felt prompted by the Lord to do but stopped doing?
• If God wasn’t the one who told you to stop, what caused you to stop doing it? (Discouragement, weariness, busyness, obstacles, etc.) Spend time with God and surrender each of these to him.
• Is the Lord telling you to begin this again? Is there another assignment in the vision he gave you that he is prompting you to do?
• What is one step that you feel God is prompting you to take to be obedient to him?
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