Determine to press through whatever God’s telling you to do trusting that down the road, you are headed for more peace than you’ve ever had in your life.

You’ve probably heard the phrase: A wise person does today what they will be happy with tomorrow. A foolish person does what feels good today and ends up regretting it tomorrow. How true that is!

Eating sugar and all the candy you want is fun, but having a complete root canal hurts! We always end up paying for the foolishness of today somewhere down the road. Many people say, “Play now — pay later!” I’ve discovered in my own life that there is a price we pay to be in the will of God and it’s spelled: P A I N! You might be wondering, ‘Exactly how is this supposed to motivate me?’ I’m getting there.

Anytime God is getting ready to advance your instructions or move you into a new phase in your life, it requires another step of obedience. And many times, it requires doing something that our flesh flat out does not want to do. It hurts. It doesn’t feel good. It creates a fight between our flesh and our spirit. But it’s always for our good. God sees things that we don’t see and there is a divine reason He wants you to get victory in those areas where you’ve suffered repeated failure.

For example, God may be getting ready to do a new thing in your life, to promote you, to move you into a new area of ministry, but He’s dealing with you about forgiving someone who hurt you years ago. You know you must, but it hurts. Somehow it feels good to hold on to that debt they owe you. Or God may be telling you that it’s time to confront this ‘thing’ that’s intimidated you for far too long. It may be an addiction, a habit, a lust, an insecurity, a person or a spirit of poverty. And if it’s had a great amount of power over you in the past, then it’s not going to just go away without a fight. A flesh and spirit fight!

In the example of Jesus in the Garden, we see Him battling between doing what He knew was right and what He wanted to do. His flesh was crying out. He knew it was going to be a pain beyond human comprehension. He didn’t ‘want’ to do it, but He could see down the road. If he could press through the pain, if He could endure the pain of the cross and keep His eyes focused on the resurrection, He would have an amazing life beyond human comprehension. He would be in the perfect will of God. He would have fulfilled His assignment. One day, He would have no pain, He would be seated at the right hand of the Father, and have an eternity of joy. And He did it.

And look how His obedience affected eternity! It affected generations! It affected you personally! Isn’t it amazing to think that somebody in need is waiting on the other side of your obedience? The decisions you are making today, as painful as they may be right now, will affect someone else’s life. Whatever you are struggling with to be in the perfect will of God, your decision will affect the lives of others.

What is that thing you’ve come up against and you know deep inside that God is telling you ‘get through it, press through the pain, it hurts now but it won’t later’? What is it? Can you identify it? What is it that you want, but you know God doesn’t want you to have? It’s in that area that God is telling you, “Look down the road. Don’t quit now. Don’t give in to that temptation. Don’t be intimidated by it anymore. Press through with everything in you and you will not regret it!”

In my new message, Breaking The Cycle I will show you the practical steps that I have followed to make myself obey God when my flesh was screaming to have its own way. I believe it will help you discover a plan that you can realistically apply to your own life. I would never say it’s easy, but it’s definitely worth it! Psalm 118:5 says, “In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free.” How many times have I confessed that?

As you come to the end of this year and prepare for a new set of goals and resolutions, determine to press through whatever God’s telling you to do trusting that down the road, you are headed for more peace than you’ve ever had in your life. You will be highly favored and promoted because of your obedience. You will be prosperous and successful because of your willingness to endure the pain that your flesh feels while it’s not getting its way. Don’t look at just what’s in front of you — look beyond what you see with your eyes. Look further. Be assured that whatever God’s telling you to get out of your life, to do away with, to forgive, to be patient . . . it’s so that He can do a new thing in your life. The pain will go away!

The truth is: you will never, ever, ever, ever . . . be happy outside of God’s will for your life. So you might as well stop delaying His plan for your life because of how painful it is right now.

God wants to use you! But He can’t use you publicly until you’ve gotten victory privately. When you defeat those things that have controlled you in the past, when you look down the road at the peace, the joy and success God promises you will have . . . get ready! You will look back over your life and say, “I am so glad I did what I did to get to where I’m at. I’m not even the same person I used to be!”