Training: not Trying

THE WORD FOR TODAY: For it is GOD who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.(Philippians 2:3 NIV)
You do not try to run a marathon, you train to run it, otherwise you end up exhausted and defeated. The kind of training we are talking about is teeth-gritting, white knuckle, do or die attitude towards things like prayer and bible reading. No it’s training yourself to be more sensitive to God. It’s learning to do the right thing, in the right way with the right spirit. Your goal maybe to read several chapters of the bible daily but what if God tells you to linger at a certain scripture because he wants to make that particular truth a reality in your life?
The different between trying and training is like the difference between the motorboat and a sail boat; you can turn on one and drive it away but with the other you have to wait for the wind, Jesus said the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So is it with everyone born of the spirit (John 3:8 NIV). Its the wind that does the work. We can’t turn it on or off. We can’t engineer it to take credit for it. But like good sailors we can train ourselves to ‘read’ it and respond to it. Once we can learn to do that we are working in the spirit and not in the flesh.
Today ask God to help you leave that way.