Greater Is Before You

I love this time of year when we begin to think of goals as the New Year approaches. At this time I also reflect on my goals I made at the beginning of the year. Most of my goals this year had to do with fitness. I wanted to be the healthiest I have ever been both physically and spiritually.  

My fitness journey has been amazing. I have pushed myself like I never knew was possible. I was doing great and then, yep you guessed it, life happened. I went on a mission’s trip where I fell so far off the wagon it was scary. I ate and ate and ate.  I’m talking cookies, chips, burgers, fries. It was like I couldn’t stop. When I finally came to my senses I made some changes and continued on with my journey. Then in September I had surgery. That was another huge obstacle. For the first few weeks my body screamed, “Give me grease!” So of course I did, once again burgers, fries & Diet Coke.

After 5 weeks of sitting on the couch and eating lots of yummy goodness, it was time for another reality check. But this time I was a little more discouraged.  I felt like everything I had worked for physically was gone. When I had the all clear from my doctor to work out again I picked myself up and was all in.

As I got back into a routine I noticed that when I was on the treadmill and had about 2 minutes remaining I found myself wanting to stop. I told myself that I had done enough. I also noticed when I was lifting if I was supposed to be doing 10 reps I wanted to stop at 9. When I realized I was doing this I thought, I wonder how many times I do this in my relationship with God? How many times do I quit right before God is going to speak to me? Right before a prayer is going to be answered? Right before I hit a goal?

As I was reflecting on this in my quiet time I felt God say, “greater is before you.”  The first time I heard this I thought YES! Then a few days later I heard it again. I thought, “ok God, I hear you!” Then it happened again. I was kind of getting annoyed at this point. “Ok, God I get it!” This time I was irritated. I wanted to hear something else.  

At the Thrive All Team Rally we had a time of prayer and as I was praying I heard it again. This time I asked God, “you have told me this several times.  I love it when You speak to me, but can we move on from this? Why do I keep hearing you say this?” 

In that moment I heard Him say “I will not stop telling you Greater is before you, until you believe it for yourself!”  

“There are so many times in life I sabotage myself. I sabotage things that God has destined for me because I don’t believe greater is before me. So with that I decided to start pushing through even harder.”

When I wanted to quit 2 minutes before my time on the treadmill was done I pushed through. When I wanted to stop at rep 9 I pushed through to 10. When life was coming at me and I wanted to give up because it is too hard, I remembered that greater is before me!

And I believe that greater is before YOU! Maybe you had some big goals that you didn’t hit this year; well this year is not over! Do you believe greater is before you? Because God believes it! So many times we give up on our goals and ourselves when God is saying, “No, keep going! Greater is before you. Only 2 more minutes and you will be there.”
 
Although I had many setbacks this year, some due to decisions I made like eating lots of burgers and fries and some just "life" setbacks. I am choosing not to be discouraged with where I am or where I’m not, but to be proud of the steps I have made toward my goals and believe that greater is before me!

Greater is before you!
- Amy