Think Ahead: 7 Decisions You Can Make Today for the God-Honoring Life You Want TomorrowSample

I Will Be Consistent

If you struggle with inconsistency, you probably have good intentions. The real issue is follow-through. You might be inconsistent in any of these areas:

• eating well
• exercising
• saving money
• praying
• reading the Bible

You may be thinking, The only thing I’m consistent at is being inconsistent!

I’m sorry because joking about this probably isn’t the wisest approach. The truth is our inconsistency is insidious. We read in Scripture, “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls” (Proverbs 25:28 NLT).

Inconsistency opens the door to all kinds of toxic issues. It infects your life, hurts your health, wrecks your finances, kills your confidence, and interrupts the intimacy you should have with others and the influence you could have on others.

If your life is not what you want, it’s likely because you’ve been infected with inconsistency.

I get you.

There are so many areas of my life where I have been embarrassingly inconsistent.

Have you been inconsistent? There might be certain spiritual disciplines you’ve wanted to practice, or you desperately desired to take better care of your health, or you decided to disciple your child, or stretch regularly, or keep a gratitude journal, and yet you have been incredibly inconsistent.

Again, I get you.

If you know that consistency matters but find yourself being inconsistent—if you’re tired of having good intentions but falling short again and again—it’s time to make the pre-decision: I will be consistent.

How are we going to do it?

Fall in Love With the Process
Focusing on results is often the downfall of people who want to be consistent. Of course goals are good, and goals are sexy. But obsessing about them causes inconsistency. So, instead, we’re going to fall in love with the process. The process may seem boring. It’s not.

Too many of us obsess about the goal. “I’ve got to lose 20 pounds!” “I need to pay off all my credit cards!” “I have to read through the whole Bible!”

We have this “win” we’re going after. We know it will feel amazing to achieve it. The problem is that day may seem like it’s too far in the future.

• Losing 20 pounds might take you six months.
• Paying off your credit cards could take two years.
• Reading through the Bible may take a whole year (or longer).

That’s not a bad thing, but if you’re obsessed about the goal, it will feel like it’s taking forever. If you’re focused on that future win, every day you still haven’t achieved it might feel like you’re losing. But if you fall in love with the process, you can win every day.

Isn’t that cool? Because it often takes time before you see the results of consistency. You do the right thing for a few weeks or months, but you still feel out of shape or haven’t paid off much of your debt or reignited those honeymoon feelings with your spouse. That’s okay. Because success is not just when you hit the goal in the future. You are successful when you do what you need to do today.

If you can fall in love with the process, the results will follow. And as you work your plan and see some progress, you will want to do it consistently every day. And if you do it consistently, you will eventually reach your goal. If, instead, you fall in love with the goal, every day you don’t achieve your goal, you’ll feel like a failure. Eventually, you’ll get frustrated and likely quit, never reaching your desired result. Remember this: Consistency isn’t an event. It’s a process.

So, in what area of your life is God calling you to be consistent? If you’re not sure, take a quiet moment to pray, “God, where do you want me to be consistent? Please show me.”

Whatever it is, you can do it, with God’s help.