How to Overcome Inertia

BY ROBERT A. COOK

Psalm 119:25-32
PLease Turn to Psalm 119, beginning with verse 25. The theme of this section is: How to overcome inertia. So, let's see what does it say:
My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.  have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. 28My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 29Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. 30I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. 31I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to
shame. 32I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
There are two problems we all face as a human being: (1) How to get it started. (2) When it's started, how to keep on going long enough to finish it.

Getting Started

Verse 25 begins by saying, "My soul cleaveth unto the dust"

We gravitate toward the dust of the earth. We gravitate to evil, to failure, to inactivity, to putting off doing the right thing because we are fallen sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. Have you noticed how easy it is for babies to pick up bad habits. Nobody has to teach them how to lose their temper. When they want something and don't get it, they would throw a tantrum.

So, if you wonder why it is that you don't start well enough on the right way, join the group. We all have trouble getting started. The problem is not that we need help, but that we need life.

So, verse 25 continues, "quicken thou me according to thy word." The word quicken means to make alive. He says, "Make me alive according to thy word." When we are dead, we can't do anything. What we really need is an infusion of divine life. When God plugs you in, so to speak, to that heavenly generating station, then things are going to work.

I used to drive a nice little Volkswagen. One day, the thing wouldn't start and I couldn't find anyone who could help me. Well, after I had prayed good and hard, I saw a little fuse lying on the floor. I thought maybe that's the problem. I looked at the fuse box under the dashboard and sure enough, there was an empty space where the fuse should have been. I inserted the fuse into the fuse box, turned the key on and the motor started.

Now, what was the matter before? Was it a good car? Sure. Did it have an engine? Yes. Did it have gas? Yes. Was the battery charged up? Yes. What's the matter? No connection with the power.

This is the problem with us. Some of us have to realize that we need to plug into Christ. We need to be born again, becoming united with the Lord Jesus. We should pray, "O God, start me. Give me Your life. Work within me. Take control of me."

Sword of the spirit. Now, how do we get the life of God? "Quicken thou me according to thy word," it says here. The word of God is that which gives us life. Some of us are spiritually dead because we have never paid attention to it. If you read and pray over God's word everyday, it will do something to you.

Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The word of God will speak to you. It will penetrate to your conscience. It will enlighten your intellect. It will change your motivation. It will make a difference.

How does all this bear on your everyday life? First, you have to put the word of God into the memory bank of your mind so that the Holy Spirit can bring it up when you come under the pressures of life. Second, in specific situations, God will remind you of the teachings of His word as He guides you to live to His glory.

For example, haven't you sometimes felt that terrible deadness in your heart? You don't feel like a Christian. You don't feel very holy. You don't feel very loving. You don't feel very patient. Then the Holy Spirit brings the word of God to your mind: "The just shall live by faith." We walk by faith, not by sight and certainly not by feeling. So, you stop letting your feeling keep you from serving the Lord. By faith, you rely on God's power and God's love to live out the Christian life.

Keep the faith. Sometimes, after we have gotten started, we give up too easily. Jump down to verse 28: "My soul melteth for heaviness"

Literally, the Hebrew word means drops. It melts so that it just drops. Having started to put your trust in God, do you sometimes feel as though you'd just better give up because things aren't going the way they should?

A man came to see me almost in tears one day. He had been an employee of a large corporation for many years, and was within four or five years of retirement. Now, he was being shuffled out of the side door. Upset and discouraged, he looked at me and said, "What can a man fifty-six years old do? I can't start over in another career." I told him, "Let's pray. Let's believe that God has something in mind for you."

The second half of verse 28 says, "strengthen thou me according unto thy word." When you feel like quitting, look into the word of God and see the promises that are there for you. The Lord promises, for instance: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5); "The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought" (Isa. 58:11); and, "Commit thy works unto the Lord , and thy thoughts shall be established" (Pro. 16:3).

Pray about your job or the lack of it and God will give you ideas as to what to do next. I've done this so many times. I know it works. Anything I tell you, I've been there.

He says, "I will guide thee with mine eye" (Psalm 32:8). Look heavenward and find that the Father is looking down to you, to guide and to encourage you. Obey what my father used to call "the hunch" that God gives you by His Holy Spirit, if you feel that you should at a given time do certain things after having prayed, then do them because God is work
ing on your behalf.

Overcoming Inertia

Now, we come to the second problem: How to overcome inertia. Verse 26 says, "I have declared my ways."

A friend of mine used to say, "If you wake up feeling grouchy, don't try to tell the Lord that everything is rosy. Tell him the truth." Tell God the truth about yourself.

Let's say you and your wife had a spat, but you feel bad about it. The first thing you do is to confess it to God, saying, "Lord, I feel bad about that. I talked out of turn." Then, you go to your wife and tell her that you are sorry. That's the way you get yourself back on track.

Not long ago, I got a letter from a man whom I have known since 1949. He writes, "Bob, you have always been an encouragement to me and I may say you acted as though you sort of looked up to me. But I got to set something straight. Thirty years ago, I did this and this and this," and he laid out a number of things that he had done that had been wrong. And he said, "God has convicted me of it and I've asked for forgiveness and I just want you to know that I'm leveling with you."

That's what this verse is talking about. "I have declared my ways." Tell God the truth about yourself and get things straighten out insofar as you can and then let Him strengthen you to do his will.

Understanding God's way. Now, verse 27: "Make me to understand the way of thy precepts." When you understand how things work, you are more apt to cooperate with the way they work.

Here's a little three-year-old. You are standing with him at a busy intersection. He's full of energy and wants to go across the street where the candy store is. Though he wants to get going into the traffic, you have him firmly by the hand. Ten years go by and he's now thirteen. Again, you're standing with him at that corner and traffic is now worse than before. But do you have to physically restrain him from dashing across the street? No. He understands now that that's the way it works. You see the difference?

When you read the Bible, ask God to teach you how it ought to work in your life, because with understanding comes obedience and cooperation. You don't always have to fight your way through the Christian life. So many people say, pray for me, it's so hard to be a Christian. Well, you might as well say it's hard to breathe. If you just learn to fill your lungs with air, you're breathing. And if you learn to cooperate with God's word, you'd be living the Christian life.

Honesty. Verse 29 says, "Remove from me the way of lying."

Now, we are dishonest people. Somebody introduces a perfect bore to you and you reach out your hand and say, "I'm happy to meet you." You know you're not; you can't wait to get away from him. Well, gentility and courtesy are in short supply these days and I am talking about being tactful or courteous.

There is a loving way to say anything that has to be said. There's a loving way to tell the truth. You can say, "When I look at you, I lose all sense of the passage of time." That's a loving way. Or you can say, "Your face would stop the clock." That's not so loving. Let God the Holy Spirit who has shed abroad in our hearts the love
of God (Rom 5:5) pervade your truth telling.

On the other hand, it's possible to be accurate and dishonest at the same time. A young man stays out late one night. When he came to breakfast the next morning, his dad asked, "What time did you get in last night, son?" The boy answered, "Oh, shortly after eleven." It was after eleven all right, it was three o'clock in the morning!

What does dishonesty have to do with effective, efficient living? Anyone that works in personnel knows that sin is a deterrent to productivity. If a man is carrying on an affair with the departmental secretary, his work is going to fall off. And any teacher knows that sin is a deterrent to learning. A boy or a girl with a guilty conscience learns more slowly than a person whose conscience is clear.

And so it is with you and with me in our relationship with the will of God. We need to be wide open to God and to people. That helps you to be effective in your Christian life.

Three last points. Our text shows that three more things need to happen if I am going to go through with God:

(1) Verse 30 says, "I have chosen the way of truth." I have to make a commitment.

(2) Verse 31: "I have stuck unto thy testimonies." I have to make that commitment stick, that is to say, there can't be any built-in wobble. "For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed," James says, "For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord" (1:6,7).

(3) Verse 32: "I will run the way of thy commandments." I will run. That's consistency. There will never be a day, when you can say, "It doesn't matter now. I can goof off today." Every day, every night, twenty-four hours a day, going on with God.

Here then are some of the truths of mastering how to live for Christ. You don't have to feel like getting at it. All you need to do is to turn things over to the Lord, let the Holy Spirit of God apply the word to your heart and keep going on what you know to be God's will at the time. You don't have to understand God's will for ten years from now. Just do what you know to be God's will today, as you find it in His blessed and inspired inerrant word and as the Holy Spirit reveals it to you, and He'll keep you going. o

The late Dr. Robert A. Cook, speaker of the "Walk with the King" radio program, was the Chancellor of The King's Colege, Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510.

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