No Shortcuts

Dan.1:⁸ “But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king… ¹⁷ …And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.”

Discipline is making advance decisions to delay gratification as long as necessary to achieve long lasting results. However, there are certain areas where we prefer quick gratification rather than delayed gratification. What are some of the areas in your life where you prefer quick gratification rather than delayed gratification? Someone is probably  thinking – everywhere; but for some people, it is in their finances; they just want to spend now! For some, it is in their health? They are consistently choosing to eat now and worry about weight loss later. For some others it is in relationships. Is it in prayer?

Even in prayer, a lot of people would prefer instant gratification; people would prefer if miracles start happening as soon as they close their eyes. Many people do not want to pay the price in real supplication before God. Is it in the area of worship you want instant gratification? Some do not even want to spend time to just worship God. All they want to do is worship under their breath while driving or at the office. If that is your only time of worship, then it is not enough; you need time to worship God.

For some people it is in their career; even though they are on a career path, they are so impatient. Let the promotion come like yesterday. Someone actually told me that he is worth more than his company was willing to pay. While that can be true, I would be patient because no one can keep a good man down for too long. If you are so valuable, in the cause of time you will begin to earn your value; so just hang in there. A lot of people are not patient with their careers. It could even be in the area of correcting others, for example colleagues, friends, a spouse, or child. You are so impatient; you want to correct them and break their neck now! Or it could be other areas I have not listed here but you know them.

But there is really no short cut in life. You need to go through the grind and just grind it out. But when the results start coming also, it would take a lot to stop it. It would be like the flow of a river when the dam is broken.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me not to truncate my victories with shortcuts. Help me to pay the price and delay gratification for the ultimate victory, in Jesus Name. Amen!