What does Derek Jeter getting 3,000 hits have to do with your walk with Christ?

Captain Clutch, Mr. November, the Yankee's Captain Derek Jeter has added another nick name, Mr. 3000. Only the twenty eighth player in the history of major league baseball, and the first Yankee to accomplish this feat, Jeter has further cemented his legacy as one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

So what does this have to do with your walk with Christ?  Well the actual record itself nothing, but how he got there, everything.  When you look at any player reaching 3,000 hits, to me it comes down to one thing, consistency.  A number to reach as high as 3,000 requires consistency over a long period time.  Our walk with the Jesus Christ requires the same.

So often we say we do one thing but do another.  We may want to do one thing, yet we still do another.  As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7 ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.   Yet while we wage war against the flesh we need to be consistent with the things we can control.

Instead of forming bad habits when we consistently stay in God's word and prayer we form good disciplines that help lead a life that is holy.  We also reduce our risk or hampering another from coming to Christ.  Nothing bothers me more than seeing a person in a Christian tshirt, or talking about their church and then going an ruing that witness by their behavior. 

1 Corinthians 8:9 says "But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak."  We are free, but when you profess you are a child of God someone is always watching you.  That's why consistency is so important.  If we back up our talk with a righteous walk we can reach more people than screaming at the top of our lungs about how we should live and not doing what we say.

This kind of consistency may not place us in the hall of fame, but it will put our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. St. Francis of Assis once said, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."  This is a great quote to live by and totally possible to do if we live a consistent life.