Consistency Becomes Difficult When Results Feel Delayed
I have no clue how Noah did it. I travelled for four days last week, and that completely upended my writing schedule. I had to fight to reorient my mind to return to my newly established routine.
Noah was committed to the same task for decades despite the distractions and interruptions happening around him. Not to mention the fact that he was building for something he’d never seen. It had never rained on Earth. Scripture tells us the ground was watered through mist that rose from it, not from the sky (Genesis 2:5-6).
Spiritual growth often requires consistency long before visible results appear.
Novelty Distracts Us From The Power of Consistency
Give me a good book, and I can be engrossed in that for days. Any other task, and the best I can give you is a few hours. It’s not because I’m not talented, educated, or capable, but because I lose interest if I don’t see results when I expect them.
I had to program my mind against this in my weight training program. Yes, the body responds relatively well to novel stimuli, but sustained results are created through consistent patterns.
Novelty gives us a dopamine boost and releases all sorts of endorphins. The problem is that we usually sacrifice quality for novelty to escape boredom. Anything we commit to usually has our full attention until it becomes too familiar, too routine. Part of spiritual growth is recognizing when we’ve outgrown the need for constant stimulation and novelty. I explored this more in Signs You’re Outgrowing Your Old Life.
What we fail to realize is that it’s in the routine that character is matured, skills are sharpened, and our ears develop a sensitivity to hearing His voice.
Obedience Requires Structure
Noah didn’t have the luxury of inconsistent effort. The ark wasn’t just a hobby or project; it was the vessel that would preserve humanity. There was no room for half effort.
Consistency in obedience is what often separates intention from transformation.
Like Noah, we too do not have the luxury of allowing any part of the work we’ve been called to perform to be subpar or performed inconsistently. After all, lives and souls depend on it. It’s for this reason that obedience requires structure.
Fear, avoidance, and emotional inconsistency can quietly delay the things God has already confirmed. I wrote more about this in Why We Delay What God Has Already Confirmed.
Inspiration Cannot Sustain Obedience
Structure is like a bad word because we’ve been trained to view it as restrictive. In a time when free will and freedom of choice are promoted endlessly, anything with a mere resemblance to guardrails is viewed as shackles. In reality, being ‘free’ to move and act only when we’re overcome with feelings of inspiration and motivation isn’t freedom at all.
Feelings may inspire us to begin, but structure is what sustains obedience.
Saying “yes” to God’s call but waking it out only when our feelings align isn’t obedience.
Sometimes our resistance to consistency is connected to deeper emotional patterns we haven’t fully addressed. I explored this more in Signs Unhealed Emotions Are Affecting Your Daily Life.
God doesn’t need your emotions to line up with your “yes”, He needs your actions to. He’s waiting for you to consistently do the thing He’s already said.
Stewarding What God Has Already Given You
He needs you to develop a system that not only allows you to commit to the calling He’s placed on you, but to steward the gifts and talents He’s already given you for it.
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