A thought by Mark Batterson from his
book, Double Blessing (p. 112). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle
Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
And that is not what we want, is it?
Make says, “I wasn’t ready to get
married. Is anyone? Lora and I weren’t ready to have children. Who is? I wasn’t
ready to pastor a church at twenty-five. We weren’t ready to invest in
missions, launch a second campus, open a coffeehouse, or build out a city block
into a prototype campus, child-development center, and mixed-use marketplace.
“Yes, you need to pray like there’s no
tomorrow. But you also have to plan like there is one! God doesn’t bless a lack
of planning any more than a lack of praying. That said, the planets will never
be perfectly aligned. At some point, you’ve got to quit making excuses. You have
to pick up the plow and start seeding the soil. Or in this case, the clouds!”
He goes on, “We have a little mantra
at NCC: ‘Go, set, ready!’ That may sound backward, but that’s the sequence of
faith. Yes, faith is following in the footsteps of Jesus. But faith also goes first,
and it doesn’t matter whether anyone else follows suit. Faith is the
willingness to go it alone.
“Every double blessing traces its
origins back to a single step of faith. It was true of the fifty-dollar check
we wrote to missions. It was true of the 4.7-mile prayer walk around Capitol
Hill. And it’s true of you.”
He then says, “What step of faith do
you need to take? No more excuses! No more delays! Delayed obedience is
disobedience! But if you take that one small step, don’t be surprised if it
turns into a double blessing.
Let’s take that first step, ok?
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