Consistency

Having watched an incredible season of Wimbledon, I thoroughly enjoyed the skill and brilliance of the world’s top tennis players! Game after game they produced consistently good serves and returns. Ask any tennis player, golfer or other sportsmen, it’s not all about producing one incredible shot. Although that always helps to win a game, it’s about consistency!

Knowing which club to select in a game of golf, executing the correct swing for that club, and doing it right time after time after time- distinguishes winners from losers. It’s also not all about talent, to play consistently takes hours, days, months and years of dedication and practice.

God is consistently good, loving and just. The Bible says in Mal. 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” The entire passage in 1 John 4:7-21 describes God’s loving nature. Love is not merely an attribute of God, it is his very nature. God is not only loving but fundamentally He is love.

Although we all know what it takes in terms of dedication and practice on the sports field or in any other discipline, sometimes we expect to have an amazing knowledge of God and relationship with Him, without consistently working on that relationship. John 15:4 (TPT) says: “So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.” The New King James Version says: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

The key to spiritual growth and a fruitful life is to abide. To abide means to stay in a given place. For those who believe, it means unbroken fellowship with God, regularly and consistently! It means daily Bible study and prayer, consistently. It means making time, learning as much as you can about God’s nature and His word, allowing the Holy Spirit to change your old nature and relying on His Word and Spirit in every area of your life. The result of this consistency is fruit! Lasting fruit!

May you live as a champion of God, practiced in good works and godliness, joined to the vine and bearing great fruit!