Lay Aside the Weight of Not Feeling Like It

July 12, 2013 | by J on Bloom

What do you not feel like doing today?
You know what I mean. Its that thing thats weighing on you, which you know would honor God because it
obeys his law of love (J ohn 15:12), or is a work of faith (2 Thessalonians 1:11), or puts to death the deeds of
the body (Romans 8:13). You know it would be good for your soul or body or family or vocation or
neighbor or church.
But you dont feel like doing it. You know that God promises you more blessing if you do it than if you dont.
But youre struggling to believe it because it feels difficult. Its like you have weights on your ankles. You
dont want to muster the energy, and every distraction glows with attraction.
The Strange Pattern of Progress
While its true that this is our indwelling sin of which we must repent and fight to lay aside (Hebrews 12:1),
the experience of not feeling like it also can become for us a reminder of a gospel truth and actually give us
hope and encouragement in this battle.
Think about this strange pattern that occurs over and over in just about every area of life:
Healthy, nutritious food often requires discipline to prepare and eat while junk food is convenient,
tasty, and addictive.
Keeping the body healthy and strong requires frequent deliberate discomfort while it only takes
constant comfort to go to pot.
You have to make yourself pick up that nourishing but intellectually challenging book while popping in
a DVD is as easy and inviting as coasting downhill.
You frequently have to force yourself to get to devotions and prayer while sleeping in or reading the
sports or checking Facebook is almost effortless.
Learning to skillfully play beautiful music requires thousands of hours of tedious practice.
Excelling in sports requires monotonous drills ad nauseum.
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Learning to write well requires writing, writing, writing and rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. And
usually voluminous reading.
It takes years and years of schooling just to make certain vocational opportunities possible.
You get the idea. The pattern is this: the greater joys are obtained through struggle and difficulty and pain,
while brief, unsatisfying, and often destructive joys are right at our fingertips. Why is this?
Why the Struggle and Difficulty and Pain?
Because God, in great mercy, is showing us everywhere, in things that are just shadows of heavenly realities,
that there is a great reward for those who struggle through and persevere (Hebrews 10:3235). He is
reminding us almost everywhere to walk by faith in a promised future and not by the sight of immediate
gratification (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Understood this way, each struggle becomes an invitation by God to follow in the faithful footsteps of his
Son, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
Those who are spiritually blind only see futility in these struggles. But for those who have eyes to see, God
has woven hope (faith in his future grace) right into the futility of creation (Romans 8:2021). Each struggle
becomes a pointer saying, Look ahead, past the struggle itself, past the temptation of the puny, vapor joys to
the great, sustained, substantial J oy set before you!
Endurance, Not Indulgence
So today, dont let not feeling like it reign as lord (Romans 6:12). Rather, through it see your Father
pointing you to the reward he has planned for all who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13). Let it remind you
that his call is not to indulgence but endurance.
Then lay this weight aside and run with faith the race he has set before you.
This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the
things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians
4:1718)
More Lay Aside posts from Jon Bloom:
Lay Aside the Weight of Self-Preoccupation
Lay Aside the Weight of Sluggishness
Lay Aside the Weight of Fear
Lay Aside the Weight of Doubt
Lay Aside Every Weight
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Topic Sanctification & Growth Categories: Commentary
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