KIM BARNES|GUEST

Years ago, I followed bloggers who encouraged their readers to join “The 5 O’clock club.” The aspirations of the club were to rise early (5am) to start your day. They offered a lot of advice about how to establish this habit. I don’t remember much of the advice, but one thing has stayed with me. One blogger wrote about rising at 5am: “Expect to feel bad for about 15 minutes.”

That was a revolutionary idea to me. Previously, I would try to wake up early and usually felt so awful that I would decide that my body just isn’t ready to be awake and I would go back to bed. But what if it was NORMAL to feel bad? If my expectation is to feel bad, then I can soldier on.

And you know what I discovered? When I wake up early and feel awful, the feeling almost always passes in about 15 minutes. Changing my expectation of what waking up should be like enabled me to establish a new routine and encouraged me to persevere.

Expect the Hard

As we start a new year, many of us are looking at establishing new routines and habits. One of the greatest obstacles to new habits is wrong expectations. We expect to feel a certain way. We want to gain certain results. But when reality is incongruous with those expectations, we get discouraged. We give up. We imagine that since the habits and routines that we aspire to are good, it will feel good to do them. Maybe they won’t feel good right away, because change is hard, but we expect that eventually the new habit will get easy.

Yet many habits, routines, and commitments retain difficulty, even after we’ve been doing them for a long time. As believers, this shouldn’t surprise us. The Bible repeatedly reminds us that as sinners living in a fallen world, we should expect life to be hard (2 Cor. 4:17) and thus are called to a life of perseverance (1 Peter 5:10).

I don’t know what you hope to change in the new year. Whether it’s something cliché or something creative—whatever the aspiration—expect it to be hard. This side of glory, life doesn’t get easier. The hardships may change, but hardship remains. As believers we must continually press on. But what should perseverance look like for a believer in Christ?

Persevere in the Hard

If you’re like me, perseverance often looks like teeth gritting self-effort that leads to soul-sucking frustration followed by an over-correction that passively presumes up God’s grace. How do you break that cycle?

As we endeavor to establish new routines and habits, how do we faithfully endure such that demonstrates our call to participate in God’s work in our lives while depending on His grace? Consider four P’s.

• Prayer
  “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (1 Chron. 16:11)“When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:17)It is through prayer that we acknowledge our weakness and our dependence on Christ for everything. Pray about both the spiritual goals you’re trying to accomplish and the seemingly mundane ones. God cares about your Bible reading and your exercise program.
• Promises“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6)“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)God is committed to us and to our sanctification. When you grow weak and discouraged, meditate on God’s promise to preserve and sanctify His children. He is committed to your growth and maturity. Remember that God is on your side.
• People“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2)“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” (Ecc. 4:9–10)We need people. We were designed to live in community. Tell others about your goals and plans for the new year. When you want to give up, lean on others and ask for help.
• Patience“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” (Psalm 37:7)“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Gal. 6:9)When we’re struggling to stay the course, it’s tempting to give up. We grow weary. We fail to see the benefit. Be patient when success seems illusive. When we wait on the Lord, we can be sure that He is faithful.

As we make New Year’s resolutions or set goals or seek to establish new habits, don’t expect it to be easy. The hardships may change, but hardship remains—but Christ remains as well. Christ’s presence in our struggles, now and in the future, is the hope that enables us to press on to a day when we will struggle no more.

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