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Occasionally I have these strange muscle spasm episodes in the left side of my neck. When they start, my neck begins to stiffen up, and the pain worsens steadily as time goes on. I had to make an ER trip several years ago because of one of these things. And by the time it runs its course, I’m just almost unable to move without hurting pretty severely. 

One such episode began Saturday evening . . .

When I woke up Sunday morning I was hurting, and already starting to stiffen up. But I got out of bed and went to church because I absolutely hate missing a chance to worship with my family in Christ. I came straight home afterwards and hit the recliner to relax, hoping that would lessen the pain and cause this thing to ease up a bit. Boy, was I ever wrong. 

Turns out, sitting down and being still for very long only made things worse. By the time 5 p.m. rolled around, I could barely move and had to miss the evening service because of it.
But in moments like those, I begin to ask God the question, “What are you trying to teach me?” And He began to answer in a pretty straightforward way, “This is what happens when you sit.” 

Let’s ponder that for a moment.

In our walk with Christ, there are a lot of us who accept Him and his gift of salvation and never hit the ground running for Him afterwards. Though we may not admit it outwardly, deep down inside we have this idea that we’ve gotten our “fire insurance” and we’re okay now. We don’t allow the Holy Spirit to convict us to the point of choosing to go to work for Christ but just go about our lives happy that we’re saved and leave it there. And as time goes by we begin to get spiritually stiff.
God will allow things to come into our lives to challenge us to serve Him. The problem is, if we’ve been sitting on our blessed assurance and our spiritual inactivity for too long, trying to get up and move for Him hurts. 

It’s painful because it may require us to sacrifice some things or other priorities to make room for His. So instead of plowing on ahead and working through the pain to begin living in the life He wants for us, we bow down to the pain and stop. And our life continues the same cycle.

Today I’m not hurting as badly as I was yesterday afternoon, but I am hurting. However, I’ve made the choice that I’m not going to let this hold me down any more. I’m up and at ‘em, and I have a full day ahead of me. I’m going to push through the pain and stiffness, and I know God has things in store for my day that will definitely be worth it.
So what about you? Are you going to stay stiff and inactive in your walk with Him? Or will you rise up and push through the pain of sacrifice and change in order to experience the real life, the true life, the FULL life that only service to the King can give?

That’s just a thought, and I welcome yours.
Until next time,
blake

Copyright © 2022 by Blake Martin @https://pastorblakeman.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/stiff-as-a-board/ No part of this article may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from Lifeword.org.