Halfway Up the Hill

"Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)

Every rider knows the hill. You are moving along the flat, you see it coming, and you do the only thing there is to do. You pedal hard, build every ounce of speed you can, and throw yourself at it, hoping momentum will carry you up. And it does, for a while. Then the ground steepens, the momentum bleeds out, and you have to change gears and actually climb. For most riders the legs give out about halfway, and the rest of the way is spent off the seat, pushing the bike to the top, breathing hard.

That is most of our praying, if we are honest. We hit it with everything we have, in our own strength, and we run out halfway up, and the rest is a grim shove toward a summit we are no longer sure we will reach. We call it discipline. Often it is only momentum, and momentum always runs out.

But watch the word Paul chooses for life in the Spirit. He does not say driven. He does not say pushed. He says led. Led is a different thing entirely. Driven is force applied from behind, the whip, the will, the last of your own strength. Led is something out ahead of you, drawing you forward, so the power is no longer coming from your spent legs.

This is the difference between a prayer life you generate and a prayer life you receive. One ends halfway up the hill. The other is drawn to the top by Someone stronger than you, who was never depending on your momentum in the first place. So stop trying to power up the hill on your own. Ask to be led up it.