whose to blame

The choices you make all through your life impact you today. As I was running the other day I came across this sign and it hit me again that it  is very important that we make good choices in our lives. 

Suppose it is the end of the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter is coming in your life and a chance for you to seal the deal. You do not want to go into a prevent defense, you should remain on the offensive attack side. Your opponent will be scheming his late game comeback. But you cannot afford to let him get into the end zone!

However, I encourage you to put on the Armor of God everyday and get properly dressed for the battle. Every single day of my life I dress for the battle. I pray through the armor of God and put it on. I encourage you to do the same and  read Ephesians 6:10-18. Just walk through each piece and ask God to put it on you! Every soldier should be properly prepared!

Another thought, don't give Satan too much credit for the causalities in your own life. I think the tendency is to blame everything on him. While he is very active and has zillions of demons assisting him, often your demise is because of your own sin nature and fleshly desires. You just make horrible choices because you can. That is why it  is so important to build godly disciplines into your lives, because it is helping to assist you to build new disciplines that shape your present decisions. Some of you have spent the majority of your lives making poor and sinful choices and to be quite frank you are reaping what you have sowed. BUT now you can be  planting new seed and the new harvest coming will be righteousness and peace.

So all that to say this, if you are not seeing the harvest you desire right now, hold on because it is coming and God always honors obedience. And even though a discipline life is challenging the end result is off-the-charts good. 

Hebrews 12:11  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it

So off  I ran after seeing this sign realizing again that this discipline would pay off later down the road when Isaiah wants to shoot hoops, Anne wants to take a walk or God calls me to reach a tribe in hills of  the Asian mountains.