YOUR POTENTIAL

God has a vision for your life.

• Jeremiah 29:11 ~`For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, `plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."

What is your vision for your life? What are the things you wish you would be, or wish you could do, and are not doing yet?

Develop a vision for your life. Dream bigger than you have been. With God's help, you can be and do more than you are currently doing.

What changes or improvements do you want?

• Get closer to God?
• Build your Character?
• Develop a ministry?
• Expand your work - are you content with your success at work?
• Personal goals - is there anything you want to accomplish? Get a degree, improve in a sport, write a book, learn a language, etc.?
• Your health - get fit, lose weight, eat better, become limber?
• Your attitude - build happiness, confidence, peace, freedom from worry, freedome from anxiety, freedome from depression, freedome from boredom?

What are the things that you want to be and do that are not yet happenning. You need to see yourself in that place, and you need to start getting there.

You don't need to get motivated, you just need to plan it and do the work. Motivation comes and goes, so whether you are motivated or not should not change how you move towards your goals.

Few are willing to do it. Are you? Are you really willing to do something different? Then let's get started.

First, pray. Start with prayer, regular prayer, about what you want.

• James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Now it's time to start to run, to compete, to box, to discipline your mind and body.

• 1 Cor 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but {only} one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
• 1 Cor 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then {do it} to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
• 1 Cor 9:26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
• 1 Cor 9:27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

This change is so you can be more of who you are capable of being. Be extraordingary. God created you, and has a vision, but we need to build up the vision of who we can become. This will honor God with the talents He has given you, and as it blesses you, it will bless others.

• Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Don't think that what you want for yourself is trivial in the kingdom of God. Everything you become helps others around you to become more of who they can become.

• Psalm 66:16 Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul.

The voices of mediocrity are all around you. People will tell you ordinary is okay. You need to tell yourself it is not. Have a vision greater than the world's expectation of you. Have a vision bigger than your past.

• 2 Timothy 2:4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

H. G. Wells tells how everyone can measure whether they have really succeeded in life. He says wealth, notoriety, place, and power are no measure of success whatsoever. Wells says the only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have done and been, to what we have done and made of ourselves.

Start to write down some ideas. Write down what you want, and small things you can do to start. Putting it in writing takes you over the first hurdle. It is easy to get distracted, to lose interest, to forget what you want.

• Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
• Luke 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."

Our ultimate purpose is to glorify God. Don't get fired up because of what you can become for yourself - get fired up because of what you can be for God. Aim to glorify Him.

• 1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
• Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men

What to do:

• Spend time each day in dedicated time with God, with prayer, with the study of His Word, even if it's for 5-10 minutes - pray for the changes
• Write down what you want different - keep it close by
• Visualize yourself making these changes
• Start your day the same time each day
• Set the times to work on the changes
• Start today
• When it is time to work on the change, fight through the barriers that have kept you from it in the past - when it's time to work on it, you work on it
• Log when you worked on the change - you will be holding yourself accountable

You know what you want. That's the easy part. You've probably thought about it many times. But you have not really started on it yet, at least not in what will make real changes or improvements.

One week from now, will you be the same? In one month? In one year? I don't want to be the same. I want to be more of who God built me to be. I want my vision of myself to be as big as who God knows I can become. Create that vision of yourself. Become who you know you can become.

Start today.