Tuesday, January 7, 2014
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I have a friend who seems like every winter he reminds me, "January is my bad month." I thought, "Well, does he get the credit card slips from Christmas, or what?" He said, "No, my biorhythms are always down in January. I feel unmotivated; things go wrong." I don't spend a lot of time with him in January.
Well, I'm not sure about the biorhythms being the reason for a bad January, but there is an interesting new area that scientists have explored. The biorhythm idea is that our lives are significantly affected by predictable, physical cycles, intellectual cycles, motor cycles... no, no, not motor cycles. Emotional cycles; that's what I meant. Actually, a biorhythm could be just a fancy new word for a condition that's as old as mankind. It goes like this, "I don't feel like it." Maybe that's what we're talking about. You know, that's the reason for a lot of things we do or fail to do. "I don't feel like it."
I guess that's why couples promise to keep their marriage vows "as long as we both shall live" instead of "as long as we both shall love." "I'll leave when the feelings change." See, your life depends greatly on what you do on those days when you feel flat and fatigued.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Just Don't Feel Like It."
Our word for today from the Word of God is coming from the life of the Apostle Paul. It's recorded in 1 Corinthians 4. I think it would be at a time if biorhythms were accurate, when Paul's biorhythms would have been very, very low. I don't know whether it was a bad month in his life or a bad time, but listen to this and think about how he must have been feeling. He says, "To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty. We are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless." Now, I can't believe that he was feeling really great. I don't think he was necessarily feeling like treating people gently and kindly...wanting to work on what needed to be done. You ever feel like that? "I just don't feel like doing what I have to do. I don't feel like praying. I don't feel like being very unselfish right now."
Well, here's how he operated. It says in verse 12, "We work hard with our own hands" even though he felt that way. "When we are cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we answer kindly." You say, "What in the world has kept Paul functioning so victoriously when he probably doesn't feel like it?"
1 Corinthians 4:2 is the key, "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." There is the word that takes over when your feelings leave off-faithful. Maybe you're in a time right now where you just don't feel like doing what you're supposed to do. You started when the feeling was there, but now you feel flat; you just don't feel like following through on your school work, or your job, or that ministry you once were so excited about. You've lost your enthusiasm. You don't feel like reaching out to the people in your family or your world. Maybe you feel more like withdrawing into a cave somewhere. You don't feel like finishing what you started. You don't feel like keeping your commitment or you don't feel like taking your time with Jesus.
You're at a crossroads right now, and that crossroads will determine whether you're a roller coaster Christian or a solid rock Christian. See, the difference in the people God can trust and can't trust is that word faithful. You've been given a trust. Will you be faithful to that trust even when the feeling isn't there and depend on His resources because now you don't have any? God's reward will be these words, "Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many."
The feelings will be back, but for now you keep moving toward your goal. You'll be very glad you did. Faithful-that's why you do what you've been trusted to do even when you just don't feel like it.