Today's Encouraging Word

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Earth’s unlimited resource is the gifts, talent, passions, imagination, and ingenuity of its citizens. You would think that we know this by now, but we often seem to miss the gift right in front of us. The world needs you to find the hero within you. The real battle is not between good and evil but between less and more. Most of us don’t choose the worst life; we just don’t choose the best. We can’t afford for you to sleep through your dreams…..The world needs you at your best. This planet is made better or worse by the people we choose to become. If you live a diminished life, its not only you who loses, but the world loses, and humanity loses. There is a story to be written by your life, and thought it may never inspire a graphic novel, it is a heroic tale nonetheless. Though you may not recognize it, there is a greatness within you.

Erwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)

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Wise Words for Today

It’s so easy to get distracted by all the things going on around you. If you resolve to live the life of your dreams, if you refuse to settle for a life other than the one God created you to live….you have to decide to focus and lock in on the direction God has called you to live your life.

The first step in getting focused could be described as concentration. Concentration is directing all of our energies and resources to a specific task, idea, and direction. So to focus, you have to make this adjustment – to concentrate all your energy and resources on where you are going. Set your eyes on where God is calling you and don’t look back (and certainly don’t look around).

Your potential becomes talent only when it is harnessed and developed. Your talents become strengths when they are focused and directed. It is here where you begin to discover who you are and the potential God has placed within you.

Without a destiny, you will diffuse your energy.
When you are focused, you are your most powerful.
A destiny is not something waiting but something within you.

When Jesus calls us to come, he is calling us out into a future we cannot walk without him….The power of focus brings not only the strength of concentration but also the power of convergence – it harnesses all your talent, gifting, skills, passions, intellect, experience, the whole of you and brings it all together to unleash your highest potential.

Irwin Raphael McManus
(from Wide Awake)

Today's Encouraging Word

Often we allow ourselves to accept limitations in our lives that have no business being considered, much less accepted. At the risk of sounding like a cliché, let me just say that as Christians we need to “dream big.” The God we worship is a big God and he places dreams in our lives that reflect the mission he has given us to accomplish. And it stands to reason that a big God is going to plant big dreams. Scripture tells us that with God, all things are possible. With the preceding thoughts in mind, never discount a dream just because it seems too big. At least take the time to evaluate that big dream, talk to trusted friends about it, and above all, take it to the throne in prayer.

And please, keep two more thoughts in mind when evaluating your dreams. First, God will never give you a dream and not equip you to realize it. He is not in the business of planting empty fantasies in our minds. If you are dealing with a dream, vision, or mission from the Holy One, he will give you the talents and spiritual gifts to bring that vision into manifest reality. And secondly, also consider this. If a dream seems too big to be possible, there is a good chance that God is giving you that dream. Why do I say such a thing? It’s simple, really. God only plants dreams that are impossible to accomplish under our own power. Scripture teaches over and over again that we are to depend on God for all things, so it stands to reason that he will only give us dreams that require his partnership in order to realize.

Erwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)

Wisdom For Personal Appication

If you are a follower of Christ, then you are mandated by God to be a voracious, intentional learner. You cannot allow yourself to settle, to be less than your best in whatever field of endeavor you have committed yourself to. You must always strive toward excellence in whatever you pursue. And you are not allowed to ignore the world around you - otherwise known as the real world. You are not supposed to be a relic of the past or even a preserver of the past. You are to be in the world making it a better place to live. Rise to the top and see what God can do with your life. This doesn't always mean you will be the best in the world at what you do, but you are supposed to be the world's best you.....Bring your best and move forward with confidence that God's incredible ingenuity will use even your shortcomings to do amazing things through your life.

Erwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You)