Are you playing it safe? Eliminating the risk so failure isn’t a threat? What have you sacrificed for this safe life where you’re just trying to keep everything the same? Understand this, safe is just another word for regret.

God is calling you into a life of full surrender, of bold decisions and BIG living. This is what you were created for. You were never created for safe. A life played safe is a life half-lived. A life played safe will be filled with regret in the end.

A study was done on those nearing the end of their life and you know what they regretted most? They regretted the things they didn’t do. They regretted all the times they played it safe, sat it out, let the moment pass without jumping in. They said no when a big ol’ hearty yes was available, and in the end they regretted it.

Every day I meet you here with a new devotional to encourage, inspire and equip you to live up to your God-given potential, and at the core of it all is this one message … your life is passing you by, don’t regret it. Get in the middle of your life. Jump in this. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.

2 Thessalonians 1:11 says “that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

May you be worthy of his calling. He is calling you to live this big, beautiful life in the way only you can. May you be worthy of that calling. Here’s the thing, God thinks you are worthy. He knows you have the potential in you because he placed it in you. Now, it’s just up to you to live up to it, to step into it, to claim it as your own. Will you live today in a way that is worthy of what God has given you? Or, will you play it safe?

If your passion has gone out in your life, recognize this … it’s likely because you’ve played it safe for so long.

I’m glad Jesus didn’t play it safe. I’m glad he didn’t sit it out. Think about that. What has been done for you was anything but safe. And what’s being asked of you is to dive into the life he died to give you.

This very day and the decisions you make today will one day flash before your eyes and you will see your entire life from a perspective of all that could have been. DON’T REGRET TODAY. Don’t miss a single opportunity. When life asks if you’ll play, say yes.

In the final days of my Daddy’s life, I asked him to look back on his 67 years of living and tell me about any regrets he had. He thought long and hard and then said, “I stayed way too long at a dead end job, working myself silly making nothing.” Eventually my Daddy went on to start his own successful construction company and experienced decades of rewarding and fulfilling work. But in the end, he regretted the years before he took that leap to get started. He regretted playing it safe for a paycheck that was never enough anyway. He regretted being stuck and being miserable when in the end he realized more was always available.

In that study with those nearing the end of their life, one of the top 5 regrets of the specific things they didn’t do, was they didn’t allow themselves to be happier.

Let me ask, what strings have you tied to your happiness?

Have you decided you can’t be truly happy on a work day? Is it written somewhere that you can’t be happy as long as you’re overweight? You’ve convinced yourself when you squeeze those thighs back into those size 8’s you’re gonna be happy, happy, happy. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. You won’t be. It won’t be good enough. You’ll still see the flaws and the imperfections and you will have already decided something else will be the source of your happiness.

Can you be happy when the big vacation has come and gone, summer is over and all you have to show for it is a cheap t shirt, a maxed credit card, and kids complaining they have to go back to school?

Have you not allowed yourself to be happy on ordinary days? Well let me tell you, your life is filled with ordinary days and if you have restricted your happiness for one reason or another, you’re going to regret it.

Welcome to an ordinary day of life. A Tuesday sandwiched between a Monday and Wednesday that seem a whole lot like the hundreds of others you’ve experienced. This is life. Your life. These may be ordinary days, but one day you may wish to have them back.

No matter what the conditions of your life currently are, I promise you’re surrounded by countless things to be happy over. Start counting.

Remember our scripture today says “by his power may he bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.” You have a desire for goodness in your life. Your heart is continually being prompted to do good things. But are you? Are you experiencing this goodness in your life? Are you doing these good things? Has that desire and those promptings been imprisoned by a long list of conditions and restrictions where you play it safe?

Stop it. Drop the expectations. God wants you to live all-in. He has given you power in your life to live your days so well that you won’t come to the end of your days with regret. Say yes to life. Say yes to the opportunities. May HIS POWER set you free. Free to do the good things you want to do. Free to live BIG and bold without apology or regret.

Get out of this lukewarm, middle ground where your fire and passion for life has gone out. You’re being called to so much more. Will you be worthy of that call today? Or will you play it safe? Will you sit it out?

Will you allow yourself to be happy today? I mean ridiculously happy. Happy to just be alive. Happy to get to live this day. Unleash his power in your life and he will guide you to the edge of a life that is safe and ask you to jump. Do it. If you don’t you’ll regret it.