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“If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting the rest of your life.”

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? 

Yes, yes
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