I hate making excuses. Yet if I am honest, I have placed and declared the label of “busyness” as to why I have not made the time to write on the blog. However, is that really a valid excuse? One of my goals is to be consistent on uploading content to Flourishing by Faith once a week. The million dollar question is: what is stopping me? I mentioned in the beginning about being busy. But is that truly really what it is?

What is stopping you from reaching your goals? What is holding you back from taking that trip, starting that business, publishing that book, losing that weight, writing that song, filming that tutorial……?( and the list can go on forever……)

I believe it is not because we lack motivation to start something or, because we have lost the drive to complete it.

We find ourselves in the middle.

The middle is the longest place we spend time in. It is the area where we think about quitting and where God is raising us up to have the courage to push past the excuses that are holding us back and navigate to the new shore that is waiting for us.

If you take one stroke past the middle, you are closer to your ending that you are to your beginning.

Sometimes, we are so focused on what hasn’t happened that we neglect what God has already done.

Don’t go back to the familiar and assume Jesus will come back there instead.

Unless you allow him to change you, nothing will change in your situation.

Whenever you start in faith, it always feels like nothing because what you see is a direct contradiction of what you sense. Don’t bring your belief down to the level of your experience. Lift your experience up to the level of your belief. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean He didn’t speak it. You start seeing it when you start by seeking Him. What is happening right now is only adding to the greatness ahead. If it were not hard, it wouldn’t be worth fighting for. It has to do more with your perception rather than the reality of your season because, God is always with you.

It is astonishing how fickle our faith can become when we forsake the reality that God can do anything.

Live an intentional and consistent life on average days.

The loudest and closest thing to us at any given time is usually what wins over our attention. It is up to you to stay woke. Woke is being aware of what going on inside of you and around you and making a daily decision to choose to pursue faith over your excuses. And the first step to effectively navigate towards the shore while disregarding the waves of conformity that will come your way to try to sabotage you is by admitting where you really are and moving forward to where God wants you to be.

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” 2 Peter 1:5-10 (ESV)

There will always be a crowd that follow the Jesus who shows signs and wonders. The real test is to follow Jesus, the one who disciples.