Goals and Temptations

I have been wanting to put into words the things I've been feeling for the past few weeks. I've had such a wide range of emotions, that I found myself confused and unsure of myself and really, really unfocused. The crazy thing is that I have had to be extremely focused in the past three weeks. I've had three weeks of paradoxical emotions.

As the co-chair of the diversity committee, I had to be on hand to help prepare for Diversity Week. My role, primarily was to see to the contracts and rosters. I wanted to have to have it done early because I knew that Diversity Week fell on the same week as the opening of Rep Stage's show, God's Ear. As the supervisor of the house managers, I had to prepare all the contracts and co-ordinate all the schedules. It was a lot to think do. I didn't know how I was going to make it through the week. 

I survived the weeks leading up to spring break which was good because I had big plans for spring break. I planned to spend my spring break working in the ministry. I usually only get to go out in the ministry on Saturdays, but I made plans to go out everyday. So far everything is going well. 

However...

I notice that whenever I make plans to devote more time to spiritual things, it never fails - the devil swoops in to throw an obstacle to keep me from reaching my goals. I have already faced a challenge that almost caused me to take a false step. Temptation was set before me, but because I put the matter in God's hands, I was able to resist. I often think about the scripture at Romans 7:21-23 that says, "I find, then, this law in my case: that when I wish to do what is right, what is bad is present with me. 22 I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, 23 but I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members.”

When I think of this scripture, I know that the struggles I face to are to be expected. When I want to do better spiritually, challenges will arise. The devil doesn't want me to get closer to Jehovah God. So he custom builds challenges that are meant to deter me from that goal. Sometimes the challenge comes and I don't fare so well and sometimes, the challenges come and I breeze right through. This time around, I didn't breeze right through, but I didn't give in. So I'm proud of that.

So I keep praying that I resist all the temptations that come my way.