{"id":622,"date":"2019-03-28T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T23:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=622"},"modified":"2019-03-27T15:03:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T21:03:48","slug":"just-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=622","title":{"rendered":"Just do it!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\" class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">[To follow <strong><em>The Ewellogy<\/em><\/strong>, please click on <strong><em>Leave a Comment<\/em><\/strong> above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: <strong><em>Notify me of new posts by email<\/em><\/strong>. If your comment is, &#8220;Notify me,&#8221; it won&#8217;t post publicly. If you don&#8217;t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was setting up to teach an elective seminar on how to have time with God at an annual men&#8217;s conference, and I recognized a fellow from the same seminar last year. &#8220;My brother, didn&#8217;t I see you here last year?&#8221; &#8220;Yes.&#8221; &#8220;Well, I hate to tell you, but it will be the same talk!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The challenge is, the brother never got started, and he keeps looking for something that will motivate him to begin. And as a speaker, I keep looking for ways to do just that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am increasingly convinced that the key to getting started is simply obedience. Joshua 1.8, for example, is a command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of waiting until you <em>want to<\/em> to do something, we would be wise to recognize this principle: <em>You will not want to do something until you first did it when you didn&#8217;t want to.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could talk to you about the benefits of exercise, for example, but if it has been a long time since you did it, starting is difficult, and the benefits are not immediate. But if you stay with it, soon you&#8217;ll realize that you feel better when you live a lifestyle that includes exercise than when you don&#8217;t. Then you&#8217;ll <em>want <\/em>to do it. But you wouldn&#8217;t know that you want it unless you had first started when you didn&#8217;t want to!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The same is true for daily time with God. You&#8217;ll go from <em>drudgery <\/em>to <em>discipline <\/em>to <em>delight<\/em>. Eventually, you&#8217;ll say with Jeremiah:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by  Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15.16, NKJV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You will not want to do something until you first did it when you didn&#8217;t want to. <\/em>Or, as the writer of Hebrews explains it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12.11, NIV)<\/em><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was setting up to teach an elective seminar on how to have time with God at an annual men&#8217;s conference, and I recognized a fellow from the same seminar last year. &#8220;My brother, didn&#8217;t I see you here last year?&#8221; &#8220;Yes.&#8221; &#8220;Well, I hate to tell you, but it will be the same talk!&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=622\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Just do it!<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-a2","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions\/629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}