The tendency to be “ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth” (2Timothy 3:7) is a human condition not confined to Paul’s experience with early churchgoers.
How often are we looking for the next key to our breakthrough or the next word from God when we have not applied the previous one that was handed to us?
Or how often are we looking for the BIG thing that will rock our world, instead of taking a small step that nudges us toward completion?
Jim Rohn, a grandaddy of the self-development movement, defines success in this way:
Success is making steady progress toward your own personal goals.
Not necessarily glamorous, but true.
You have a unique personality and call, a particular role to play, and service to render to mankind. God Himself has crafted it for your comfort – His thoughts toward you are good to fill your future with hopeful optimism and far-reaching fruitfulness.
The problem is we so often compare our STEP 1 with someone else’s STEP 1001, forgetting that they got there one faltering step at a time.
Of course, there are leaps of luck, fortune, or favor that leapfrog several steps of the process, but you cannot build a business on this.
Golden Ticket
The lottery mentality waits for some golden ticket at the end of a proverbial rainbow that somehow, one-day, God might just drop from the sky.
Catch this though, from Acts chapter 1.
Jesus has risen from the dead and spent 50 full days disclosing the Kingdom to His followers, commissions them to “go into all the world” filled with the promised power, and is then taken up into Heaven. Literally, right there befoe their eyes, He floats up and disappears into the clouds.
Within moments of this happening, a couple of brightly apparelled angels arrive and say, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?”
Go, do what He told you. Quit waiting around, you have all you need to begin.
What Have You Got In Your Hand?
All the while He is saying, “Moses [insert your name here], what have you got in your hand?”
Moses had a shepherd’s staff.
What do you have?
God took Moses’ everyday-ordinary and it became the extraordinary tool of deliverance, opening seas, and swallowing serpents.
What can God do with your everyday-ordinary?
It will only begin working when you pick up your stick and start waving it around a little!
Grow As You Go
A friend of mine shared some quotes from the excellent book, Becoming a Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley, and one in particular struck me with regard to the truths we are sharing here:
“All of my future learnings will come from the process of creative output”
We grow as we go.
Apply what little you think you know and see how much more God can make of it. Let’s face it, a stick in our hand is not much to write home about, but when God’s hand is on yours it can bring deliverance and miracles to the world.
What do you have in your hand? It’s not about what you can’t do, it’s what you CAN do.
Can you write? TODAY write something that will encourage others.
Do you want to sing? Create a video of a song you have written or enjoy and share it somewhere.
Are you a coach? Post something today that you know will impact people’s lives.
An Ounce of Application
It is very easy to fall into the trap of being perpetually inspired but never acting on what you are moved to do. Jumping from one spike of motivation to the next we become sermon or seminar junkies who live in la-la land.
Inspiration is a powerful substance. Explosive even.
It literally means God-breathed. Like faith, the tiniest amount has devastatingly brilliant possibilities.
“It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.” (Mark 4:31–32 KJV)
You don’t need a bag full before you begin. Just a grain will do.
An ounce of application is worth a ton of inspiration because when the seed is planted its potential is unlocked.
The miracle happens when the seed is given the opportunity to grow.
Whether this is your day one, or your day 1001, there’s someone waiting to be encouraged by what you say.
An ounce of application soon adds up to far more than a ton if you’ll do it every day. Starting today.
We all know that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.
Thankfully, the second-best time is now.
Starting now…
If you have had time to read this far, you certainly have time to take action and create something today that pokes the devil in the eye.
Share something in public that you believe can help someone else. Don’t measure its impact by the likes and shares, because the least of all the seeds now can become the greatest of all the trees later.
Your part is to sow.
God’s part is to make it grow.
