If You Don’t Use It, You Lose It

Matthew 1:24

“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”

The other day I stumbled upon a YouTube video of this old guy giving advice to young people. One big piece of advice that he gave was “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” He was specifically talking about knowledge, but this can apply to almost every area of life. Whether it’s mentally, applying the knowledge we learn, physically continuing to work out our muscles, or spiritually in our relationship with God.

In this passage of scripture, Joseph had been given a task to do by the angel of the Lord. Joseph had just found out that his wife, Mary, had become pregnant but he knew that he wasn’t the father. In his mind, he assumed some other guy had slid into her DM’s and also into her bed. Therefore, he had it in mind to divorce her quietly to avoid exposing her to public disgrace. But an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and reassured him that the baby is indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit and then commanded him to give him the name Jesus. When he woke up, he did just as he was commanded by God.

The Bible says in James 2:17 “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Joseph’s faith in this story is truly remarkable. Even though his feelings told him otherwise, Joseph moved forward and trusted God despite his situation. If he hadn’t been used to obeying the voice of God before, he probably would have done the natural, logical thing and bailed on his family. But he chose to stretch his faith muscle and move forward even though he did not know exactly what would happen.

I don’t know what you are facing today, but I do know that faith is a muscle that has to be stretched every day. It is never easy to look at a negative situation you are going through whether it’s relationally, mentally, financially, or physically and see the benefit of it on the other side. It takes knowing the promises of God through His Word and practicing His presence through prayer and communication to see that God has a plan through it all. If you don’t use it, you lose it.