Latest / Prayer Before Work / S01E25 - SHOWING UP WHEN YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE IT "Feelings Are a Terrible Manager"
Transcript
- Sean Graver: Maybe this morning you woke up motivated and ready, or maybe you really didn't. Either way, I'm glad you're here. Let's bring this day to God before anything else gets to it. So let's read a verse. We'll apply it to our work, and then we'll pray. So we're gonna be in 1 Corinthians 15 58. It reads, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor is in the Lord is not in vain. So the Apostle Paul is saying stand firm. He says let nothing move you. And that's always not just when you feel like it, not when the circumstances cooperate and not when you can see the results yet. Always. Paul is describing a consistency that doesn't depend on conditions. Now he grounds it in one reason. Your labor is not in vain and feelings are a terrible manager. ⁓ my goodness, if I only showed up fully on the days I felt like it. Well, honestly, that might only be half the days. The other half I'd be running on obligation or coffee or not much else. But here's what I've learned. Action usually precedes feeling not the other way around. You don't wait until you feel engaged to engage, you show up. You do the work. And somewhere in the middle of it the feeling often follows. Now, faithfulness is not the ⁓ absence of low days, it's the decision to show up on them anyway. To stand firm when everything in you wants to just check out for the day. To give yourself fully even when fully doesn't feel available. And that's not just white-knuckling through it, but that is trusting that the labor is not in vain. Even today, even when it feels like it might be in vain. Well, God, there are some days when I just don't feel it. The energy isn't there and the motivation's running low. And I know if I wait for the feeling to show up before I engage, I'll waste the whole day. So help me to stand firm today, to show up fully, not just because I feel like it, but because I've decided to. Because the work matters and the people around me deserve my best, even when my best is a little hard to access. And remind me throughout the day that my labor is not in vain, that you see the effort on the low days too. Maybe especially on those days. So help me to show up today, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. And go make today count.