WHAT ELSE MUST I DO TO SEE GOD'S DREAM FOR MY LIFE FULFILLED?
#2. REMOVE ALL DISTRACTIONS
I used to have a poster in my office that said, “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eye off the goal.” TRUE? YES!
If I want to finish the race of life I must remove all distractions. Hebrews 12:1 says this “Let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.”
Notice the word “particular”. The particular race that God has set before us. What that means is that your race in life is unique. All of us have a unique race to run. You’re not supposed to run somebody else’s. They’re not supposed to run yours. If you don’t run the race that God intended for you, it’s not going to get run.
So, what is it that can distract you from your life mission? What can keep you from being what God wants you to be? Lots of things. But if I could boil it all down to one for many people it would be their past. Past failures, past guilt, past tragedy, past regret. Paul had every reason to be filled with regrets. Prior to becoming a believer, he was a religious terrorist. He admits that he even participated in one man’s murder. Yet he says in Philippians 3:13 “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race.”
I’ve got to remove all distractions. I love that verse. If I am going to complete my life mission, the dream that God has for me, I must learn to move ahead, keep on keeping on, and leave the past behind.
The problem? Satan will not let you forget your past – he will keep dragging it up and you must keep battling- keep moving ahead.
#3. RENEW MYSELF DAILY.
To last over the long haul, you have to know how to recharge yourself – spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says “We do not become discouraged because our spiritual being is renewed day by day.” Notice the phrase “Day by day”. That means every 24-hours – daily. You need to know what renews you and then you need to do it over and over.
This is the importance of a daily QT! Folks, a QT is not simply reading your bible. NO NO, it is much more than that. It is intimacy with God. It is Him talking with us, and us talking with Him. If you are not doing this, you will not only miss God’s dream for your life, you will get distracted, and you will forget your place in the story. If you are not renewing yourself daily, the enemy will take you out.
The Strategic Air Command is our nation’s defense system that flies 24 hours. At any point in the day there are airplanes in the air carrying nuclear warheads to be a shield of protection for our nation. If they’re always in the air, how do they keep them full of gas? In the military, they do what’s called mid-flight refueling. On a long flight, these planes that are flying, staying in the air constantly, another plane actually flies up next to them, docks in and it’s like a gas tank plane and they fill up the Strategic Air Command plane so it can keep going – mid flight refueling.
You need to learn how to do that in your life. Mid-flight refueling. Every time you get tired and discouraged you can’t just hop off to Tahiti. I don’t know if you’ve figured that out yet but you can’t just call up and say, “Boss, I’m not really feeling motivated today. I think I’ll take a couple of weeks off.” No, you have to keep going. You have to know, how do I recharge myself in the middle of this hectic lifestyle, in the middle of this stress, in the middle of life as it really is lived. Because you can’t just go off and be a monk in some monastery every time you get tired. Learn how to recharge yourself during the day.
Your life mission cannot be completed by human power alone. Colossians 1:29 says “This is my work and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work within me." Folks, what God calls you to do, He equips you to do. He can take a talent, an opportunity, a skill, a hobby and use it as part of your life mission to help other people. But you’ve got to rely on Christ.
Some of you think, “Mike, it’s too late for me. I’d do it the first half of my life but I wasted it. My race is half over and so I’m not even going to try getting back in the race.” The Bible says in Philippians 1:6 “God who began the good work with you will keep right on helping you grow in His grace until His task within you is finally finished.” You are never a failure until you quit. The Christian race is not a competition of who can get to the end first. The Christian race is one of endurance and the issue is how well do you finish.
Ponder these things today. i love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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