Do It By Ones

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

IN THE GAME OF CRICKET you can move ahead, then win the game in small increments, or “ones.”

While traveling and preaching in a foreign country that was challenging and dangerous, Jill Briscoe felt overwhelmed by the task at hand. Her husband, Stuart, said, “Do it by ones.”

Elisabeth Elliot, whose husband, Jim, was killed by a tribe she later went back to minister to, was asked, “How do I know God’s will?” Elisabeth responded, “Do the next thing.”

My husband, Bill, believes that it is in the small, daily, even mundane decisions of life that we gain ground for God.

Often we want victory to be won once and for all! We want a dramatic rescue or an exciting event to change our lives. However, we gain ground and move from chaos to change in small steps. Galatians 5:25 says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (NKJV).

The word step means “to march or keep step,” like in the military. Think about marching—it isn’t dancing; it is just one foot in front of the other, over and over and over again.

Victory comes if we “do the next thing,” if we “do it by ones,” and if we live one day at a time. Level ground is the goal. When we can get out of the drama and chaos and onto level ground, we can go full speed ahead. If we have lofty goals, they will be attained if we can daily do the next thing. It is like we are biking up the mountain and soon we’ll be on the flatland, where we can make great gains and distance ourselves from past failures. One day at a time—“Do it by ones!”