If
you’re going to grow in the kingdom of God, you’re going to do it just
like a seed that’s been planted in the ground. How does a seed grow? All
at once? No, it grows constantly—24 hours a day—a little all the time
until it accomplishes what it was created to do.
Most of us don’t
operate that way spiritually. We study and pray very hard for a few days
and then quit. Then, when some disaster comes, we make a mad attempt to
pray and stand on the Word, all the while realizing that, for some
reason, we’re just not as strong as we ought to be.
There’s no
such thing as an overnight success in the kingdom of God! Real strength,
real growth comes as you consistently and constantly keep the Word
before your eyes, in your ears, and in the midst of your heart. Not just
when you want to or when you feel like it, but constantly, like the
seed, a little all the time.
A man came up to me once and said, “Man, your ministry just took off overnight, didn’t it?”
“If it did,” I answered, “it was certainly the longest night I ever spent in my life!”
From
his perspective my success did seem to spring up quickly. That’s
because he didn’t see me during all those hours and weeks and months and
years I spent in the Word of God. He didn’t see the daily process that
lay behind that success. He just saw the results.
Make up your
mind to begin that daily process of constant growth today. Determine to
start putting the Word in your heart consistently. Every day a line
here, a line there—a tape here, a tape there.
Begin to act as
though that Word is true every hour of the day regardless of what comes
or how you feel. Keep adding to your faith—meditating on it, confessing
it, seven days a week.
Eventually, your faith will be bigger than you ever dreamed it could be.
