If you were to look at the trajectory of your current patterns, where would you be in 5 years? Where are your choices and decisions leading you? Every single thing you do has an effect on your life. When you continue to repeat those things, they create your future reality. That reality may be your potential made possible, or it may be your potential paralyzed.

Within you is all the potential in the world. Potential to, as Jesus said in John 14:12, “do the things he did, and even greater!” That’s what’s inside of you. That’s what is possible. I can’t wrap my mind around that really, but if Jesus said it, then I believe it’s true. As believers and follower of Jesus, our potential is the power to do even greater things than Jesus did. But has that potential been paralyzed? Paralyzed by choices that take you off course. Paralyzed by fear that tells you you’re not good enough. Paralyzed by a past that brings guilt and shame, and a future that drips with anxiety.

This is what causes our trajectory to get out of alignment. Where we’re heading is not where God says we could go. What we’re doing is not what God empowered us to do. It’s just a little off. Off by a few degrees. And here’s the thing about being a little off today in our choices and decisions, when repeated, it takes us radically off course. We end up in a completely different destination than the one intended, and it happens little by little.

It’s just like the nose of an airplane turned by a degree creates a completely different destination after thousands of miles. Experts in air navigation have a rule of thumb known as the 1 in 60 rule. It states that for every 1 degree a plane veers off course, it misses it’s target destination by 1 mile for every 60 miles it flies. Over thousands of miles, you can end up in a completely different state all because of a tiny, 1 degree difference.

A 1 degree negative in your life, repeated every day for 60 days, takes you off course by a mile. Keep doing that for 5 years and you’re off by 30 miles. Oh dang, and it was such a tiny mis-direction that you never understood it’s impact.

The enemy works in the misconception that these little things don’t matter. He swoops in with his crappy counterfeit dealings and tells us a little won’t hurt anything. One day doesn’t make a difference. This isn’t a big deal. No one will ever know. And before we know it we’re face deep in a carton of icecream, or smoking another dang cigarette, buying another pair of leggings when we already have 73, or wasting another hour on TikTok. And the trajectory is off. We’re off course. The devil is doing a celebration dance because girl if he can’t ruin your life, at least he can get you off track.

It happens when we’re just so darn busy. It happens when boundaries get blurred and we give a little here and cheat a little there. It happens when we make excuses and accept less than our best effort. It happens when we ignore that still small voice that whispers “something isn’t right here”, and we move forward anyway.

Does anyone else ignore that still small voice sometimes? That feeling in your spirit that gently serves to guide you, but you don’t listen. Looking back on every mess I’ve ever gotten myself in, I can remember the pivotal moment when I chose not to listen and do my own thing.

So, the trajectory of our life goes off course and the distance from the life we’re living and the life we’re created for grows a little bigger. We don’t mean to be off course, but it just happens. And it happens 1 degree at a time.

And here comes that still small voice. Are you ready to listen now? Are you willing to be open to God’s prompting within your spirit here?

Listen and you will hear him say “You are meant for more than this.”

Yes, more than you have settled for. More than you currently see. More than you know now. More than you’re comfortable with. There’s more for you.

Again, if Jesus said the Spirit of God living within us would empower us to do the things he did and even greater … why aren’t we? That potential is there. It is possible. Maybe we’ve just gotten wrapped up in the patterns of this world and forgotten our truth. We’ve gone a little off course and as we continue to repeat our actions daily, our trajectory takes us to a different destination than the destiny God had in mind.

The way back is the same thing that caused us to get off course in the first place … a slight correction. When you hear that whisper telling you “you are meant for more than this”, does it also come with the realization of a specific habit or action that you could improve? I bet it does! Yes, a 1 degree adjustment.

When God tells us we are meant for more than this, he also shows us where we’ve settled for less and how we can change that.

Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The pattern of this world says watch more videos, be entertained, be anywhere but here, get more stuff, try to look like her. When we follow that pattern, we get off course and we miss God’s will and his good plan for our lives. We end up in a totally different place than God destined for us. Now, there’s always a way back, but how about we not wait until we crash and burn, let’s start making the corrections in course now.

I believe this scripture is not only talking about the pattern of this world, but your own personal habits. The pattern you create in your own world. The routine and rut you fall into. The thoughts you think without direction. The things you say without restraint. The way you spend your time without intention. DO NOT CONFORM TO THIS ANY LONGER. Don’t just give in and assume how you’ve always been is how you will always be. God says you can be TRANSFORMED, that means you can change. How do you change? You start by changing your mind.

You decide if God says I’m meant for more than this, then I won’t settle for this. If God says he created me for greater things, then I know I can get through this.

Where does God want you to go to work on your 1 degree adjustment? Maybe it’s going to ultimately require a whole lot more than 1 degree because you’ve been off by a good 20 for a long time now. Okay, don’t get overwhelmed in that. Our God is a God of increase and I’m telling you he has the ability to take what little you can do today and multiply it in ways that do not make sense. He has the ability to do in 1 day what you couldn’t do in a thousand years. God can transform you when you decide you’re changing your perspective and your actions. It is possible!

Hear that whisper “you are meant for more than this …” then notice the next thing your Spirit confirms you can adjust. Make that 1 degree adjustment and know your trajectory just changed.