Remember Your Why

Have you ever found yourself struggling with the most simple tasks? Getting out of bed, cleaning up the kitchen, doing the 5 loads of laundry that you keep telling yourself you will get to eventually? When we think about these tasks that seem daunting, we tend to complain or try to compromise by putting them off until later. It can be this way in our spiritual walk as well. When we have the mindset that I have to do these tasks, we often focus on the dread that comes with the word, have, and in our human nature, we have a tendency to sometimes forget our why.

Why are we serving the Lord? Why are we denying the world? Why are we continuing on the narrow road?

Whenever we are facing obstacles in our lives that take our focus away from the Lord, or whenever we are falling into the space of complacency, we have to remember our why.

I think of the song Communion and the first lines of the song state:

“We are returning to the place we’ve always belonged. Right here with you. Take me back to the garden. Lead me back to the moment I heard Your voice. Take me back to communion. Lead me back to the moment I saw Your face.”

This is our why, and what we have to remember. That moment when there was no space between you and the Lord. Love is what drew you in, and love is what will keep you.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

Love is the very nature of God. He showed this by giving us his Son. We share this nature because we are born of him.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” - Deuteronomy 6: 5-6

We all have burdens. We all have things in our lives that are weighing us down. For me, lately, it has been getting up in the mornings at the hour that I have appointed to spend time in my tent with the Lord. What started as a small, 10 minute snooze, had turned into not waking up until the last minute. This not only causes my day to feel rushed, it also doesn’t allow me to get lined up before starting my day.

So when I expressed this burden, I got hit with the statement, “remember your why.”

Why am I getting up in the mornings to spend time with the Lord?

The answer, because I love the Lord more than I do sleep. I love the Lord more than I do my bed. I love the Lord more than being a little tired.

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13:7

Love endures all things. So when we find ourselves in the middle of a struggle, when we are feeling distant from God, when we are tired, or are heavily ladened. Remember your why. Remember how the Lord drew you close to Him in the beginning. Go back to your well, and remember why you chose to follow Christ.

When we ask ourselves this question, we can look back and remember the goodness of who He is and turn our mindset from “I have to do this” to “I get to do this.”

How beautiful of a phrase to say I don’t have to, I get to because I love the Lord.

“So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the GREATEST of these is love.” - 1 Corinthians 13:13