"The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now." - Zig Ziglar
This quote rings so true in my life. It is so challenging to keep focused on what we want most instead of what we want now. This, of course, is because usually what you want most requires patience and discipline. Unless what you want most is what you want now and then you just end up spending your entire life hopping from one desire to the next, never really getting full and never really accomplishing anything of worth. Unhappy and feeling like a failure.
For example, if you want to lose 20lbs, your goal is to sacrifice what you want now -insert any food temptation here- to accomplish your weight loss goal - what you want most. It's easy enough for a day or two, or a week or two, but long term, it takes a lot of determination.
Often times this is played out in a battle of the flesh vs. the spirit. The flesh, our carnal self, wants our desires to be fulfilled now. And those desires can be vast and varied. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Romans. He starts out in Romans 7:14-15 (ESV) with this statement: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." Doing or executing what we want most is hard, and we end up doing what we hate (what we want now) instead. How many of us have loathed themselves after giving in to temptation when we swore we would hold fast? He continues with this: "Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." Rom 7:16-18 To continue our illustration, when we give in to the flesh and do what we did not want to do (give in), we confirm that our primary goal of what we want most is good and worthy, otherwise we would not be upset at ourselves for giving in to temptation. And so we recognize what temptation is, and what sin is, and that the flesh is subject to it. If we rely only on the flesh, we cannot accomplish it. The flesh will always lead us to satisfy our most immediate desire. "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand." Rom 7:19-21 Isn't it true that as soon as we tell ourselves we will stay away from behavior or thing X, whatever it is that we are trying to avoid seems to be staring us in the face every time we turn around. Satan tempts us with things that he know will lure us away. And we know this. And we know what is good. "For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." Rom 7:22-25
The key to be able to fight this battle of spirit vs. flesh is actually quite simple. The goal we want most has to be bigger than ourselves. It has to be something that inspires us, something that we can hope for. It has to be something spiritual, a higher calling. I love the way Paul says it in his letter to the Philippians: "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil 3:13-14 Keep your eye on the spiritual prize and press on!
The goal is worth it. And the bonus is that as you set for what you want most, you can inspire others to strive for it too. Make that goal a spiritual one, with Heaven as the ultimate reward. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb 12:1-2
