“Success occurs when your dreams get bigger than your excuses.”
Excuses comes easy to us as we go. Maybe you have a friend that makes great plans and hypes up everyone for it and guilt trips the ones that’s not on board and on the day of the plan comes up with an excuse and bails. If you can’t think of that friend, then you are that friend. We play the same game with God, when He asks us to do something, we are all in but as we get closer to the task, it gets quite different, then you suddenly have work to finish, people to meet, laundry to do or tasks to complete. While you may tell yourself that you would never have the audacity to reject God to his face, the truth is that you probably do this more than you think. God is constantly pushing us to live lives filled with love and impact, and this can feel daunting or downright impossible, depending on your level of faith.
Fear in and of itself is not a bad thing. Fear is baked into our system to provide several benefits, including keeping us safe in dangerous situations. However, we tend to refer to the idea that we will choose the path of least resistance and avoid situations that make us feel uncomfortable.
God doesn’t do anything by accident. His decision that you would be born when you were born and where you were born was for the purpose that you would have the greatest opportunity to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. And if you know Christ, please also know that the Lord’s plan for your life isn’t something that just occurred to Him. From eternity past, He has ordained a distinct and intentional purpose for how you would use the few really brief decades you’re given on this earth.
We may feel we are inadequate for God’s calling. We know we should do something, but we try to convince ourselves and the Lord we are not capable. We identify a barrier that could cause us to fail, and instead of jumping it, we hide behind it.
A strong relationship with God is one that gives us the courage to do what we would never do on our own. Whether it’s talking to a friend about that elephant in the room you’ve been avoiding or making a big life decision that puts you in unfamiliar territory, it’s important to remember that God is actively playing a part in your life to ensure your long-term success and happiness. Believing this will allow you to take risks and do things you wouldn’t have imagined possible on your own. So the next time you are in the hour of the plan that God has,
“Make an effort, not an excuse.”