What it means to HUSTLE

I had seen this word referenced on Christian apparel, and on the cover of some Christian books, but I never quite knew what it meant as a Christ follower. It always stumped me until yesterday. Yesterday out of the blue it came to me. God revealed to me what it meant to “hustle.”
God opened the eyes of my heart and literally showed me how some things that have occurred in my life were a result of “hustling.”
When we as believers die to ourselves each day, we become vessels for God to use. He uses US to further His kingdom here on earth. When we walk in Spirit and do the things He directs us to do despite what it might seem or look like to us, He is “building” and “connecting” all the while. All we actually know when being obedient is that God lead us to do it, and we will obey.
Hustling looks like this.
Waking up, dying to self, praying, asking the Holy Spirit to fill you up and guide you, staying in constant prayer with God all day, listening, sharing, pursuing, sharing your story, sharing His love, giving, sacrificing, hurting with Hope, stepping out, being brave, forgiving, inviting, studying God’s word, living God’s word, learning, believing, taking risk, consistency, sweat, tears, looking to Heaven, living for eternity, and so on, and so on… Then DOING IT AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN. Doing it AGAIN the next day and the next day.
THAT is what it means to “HUSTLE” as a Christian.
God showed me yesterday one tiny little thing I did out of obedience (I was nervous and felt completely vulnerable and a little foolish)He used. He used it in such a beautiful way, and then He allowed me to see “how” He used it. It brought me to tears, and was such a gift because He didn’t HAVE to show me how He used it, but He did. He uses our obedience and connects the dots using it ALL for His good even when we are unaware of our obedience’s implications.
It may look like failure to our human eyes, but He is greater still. He is using our brokenness, our faith, obedience, our humbleness, our holiness, and swirling it together for His good and perfect purpose. We cannot rely on our own understanding. We have to walk in FAITH.
We have to remember Who is in us, the Power He has, and we have to NEVER give up, and HUSTLE! RUN OUR RACES EVERY SINGLE DAY, AND HUSTLE.
If we are laying down ourselves, our hopes, our dreams, our agenda’s, our time, our talents, our thought’s, and letting Him use us for His purpose, THEN KNOW HE IS USING YOU FOR HIS KINGDOM, and that is ALL that matters. The more you surrender, the more He will use you. The more you ask for, the more you will receive.
When you encounter a bend in the road, or you are feeling the weight of despair, and you have lost hope… God is a God of redemption, and He will turn your “trash into triumph!” Your “mess will become your message,” AND you can then laugh in the face of the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

From one of the songs that is background music to my everyday life, “when it doesn’t make sense, I will do it again. When I have to go against the wind, I will do it again. When all hell is breaking loose, I will not be crippled by confusion. I will not sway to the cadence of complacency. When it feels like hope has disappeared from the horizon, and I’ve waited for rain, but I don’t see any signs, I will look AGAIN raising my eyes to the skies. I see a cloud the size of a man’s hand stating to expand, and it may start small, but little is much when God is in it, and I know I’ll win if I just don’t quit…Don’t you dare quit! When you march six lap’s and still the walls won’t fall, take ANOTHER LAP, your closer than you think you are, YOUR CLOSER than you’ve ever been before! Walk ON! You’ve come to far to faint. He who spoke it, is FAITHFUL to fulfill it! Show up TODAY, and the next DAY, and the next DAY, and the NEXT DAY. PRESS till something happens, PRAY till something changes, PUSH till something breaks! Say within yourself, whatever it takes, whatever the cost, no matter what they say, no matter what I FEEL, I’ve got A JOB to DO, AND I WILL SEE THIS THROUGH, until God’s kingdom comes and His WILL is done, in my life.”
Be a hustler and RISE in His strength today AND tomorrow. Greater things are to come!