“Breathe, just breathe.” “In through your nose, out through your mouth.” “Just blink the sweat out of your eyes.” “Ew did a bug just go in my nose?” “Oh gosh, I tied my shoes too tight.” “Okay, B, just think about ice cream. That will help right? When you get home you can drink a gallon of water and eat a bowl of ice cream.” “I always imagined dying doing something I love, not dying while running.” “I’m so sweaty my headphones are falling out - no music, no running.” “Maybe a dog will bite my leg and I’ll have a reason to stop doing this.”
Every summer, this was me for an hour every day talking to myself about getting ready for the upcoming field hockey season. I’d walked to the end of my driveway and take off….okay who am I kidding, there was no “taking off,” but more like slowly motivating my feet to get up off the ground. I hated it. All I wanted was to have my stick in my hands and stealing the ball and blocking shots from the skinny forwards charging at me. I wanted to be scoring a stroke or driving the ball down the field. But I realized, I couldn’t do that unless I was in shape.
I believe the starting block of conquering Spiritual ADD is abiding in Him. Abiding is like the conditioning. Getting deep into His Word, aligning my mind with it and accepting it through my actions is a lot of work. But once you push off the block and your feet start going as you run the race of life, we tend to thank ourselves for the upfront work.
Once you walk onto the field, the game begins. Once you abide in Christ, the Devil starts spiritually attacking you. He starts feeding you lies of not being enough. He starts spitting doubt in your face. He starts sucker punching you with your past. And suddenly you can react one of two ways - delight in Him or walk away.
When it comes to fight or flight, I tend to choose flight. When someone confronts me, I just say “okay” and walk away. When I’m in a place with tension, I sneak out the closest exit. But when the Devil confronts me, taunts me, and brings tension into my life…I have a harder choice to make.
“Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.”
--Psalm 119:35
When we start conquering spiritual warfare with abiding, it leaves us with a passion for His commandments, for His agenda, and for His purpose. We don’t move from abiding, to delighting, then to dwelling. They are one system, dependent on each other to work.
David knew this when he wrote Psalm 119. He asks to be lead to the path of abiding because he delights in it. When we abide in Him, we will find delight in Him.
To delight is to please greatly or find great pleasure.
When we truly abide - when we align with Christ, His Words will reflect in our actions. If we align with Christ and our actions reflect His Word, whatever we ask will be done because our hearts will be in line with His - we find great pleasure (delight) in serving Him.
“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.”
--Psalm 119:92-93
Life gets tough. The feeling of enoughness fades and past hurts and guilt creep in. It’s easy to choose “flight” over “fight.” But when we condition our hearts and establish spiritual discipline, we thank ourselves later.
When God’s Word isn’t at the forefront of our lives, we tend to flight. We perish. We wallow in our pain. But when His Word is the forefront of our lives (abiding) we are given life - a pleasure filled life (delight).
Delight is a result of abiding. Abiding leads us to finding pleasure in Him and His commands - delighting.
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