Let me talk to the girls who are frustrated on their journey. Let me talk to the girls who woke up dang tired this morning. Let me talk to the girls who gave up last time and feel like giving up again. Let me talk to the girls who are questioning if they can, and maybe even if they really want to.

Here’s what you need to know my sister … You can start late, fail a million times and still succeed. You can be on the wrong path, doing all the wrong things, heading in the wrong direction, and still turn your life around and get it right. It’s not too late for you. God’s got exactly what you need today!

If you’ve failed, have you accepted failure as your destiny?
If you’ve missed it before, have you assumed you will never get it right in the future?

Do you feel you’ve traveled for so long down this path that you’re too invested to turn back now? Like all the damage has been done, so what’s the point of even trying to fix it? Girl, you can just decide right here today you’re not doing this anymore. You can draw your line in the sand, say enough is enough, and climb your way out of this. You can.

I’ve witnessed lives radically changed with the one simple decision to do something different. I’ve seen trajectories take a hard turn and go in a completely different direction. God allows U-turns! He allows your past to be your past, and your future direction to be anything you choose. And when you decide to start choosing a direction that aligns with God’s will, you get his supernatural strength to move you along.

God offers a partnership with us when we’re going in the right direction. He doesn’t make it easy, but he makes it possible. He doesn’t hand it to us, bu he offers his hand. Now all you have to do is take his hand and keep doing the next right thing. Again and again, one step at a time, with God’s strength and guidance, and your best attitude and effort, you will step yourself into the good plans he has for you and the BIG life he created you for.

Hebrews 10:36 “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.”

Yes, patient endurance is what we need. God’s will for our lives is like a marathon. It’s this step, and it’s a whole lot of future steps you can’t even think about right now. If you start thinking about all there is to come, you’ll get overwhelmed and cancel this step. And when you cancel this step, you never get the opportunity for future steps and you dismiss yourself from all God has for you here now.

If you want what God has for you here, then sister you absolutely must take the next step. You don’t get to just stay here, stuck in indecision, waiting for God to come do it for you. Your foot, your step. And when you take it, God will strengthen you for the one to follow. When you don’t take it, you never realize what you could have done next.

How many times have you missed what you could have done next because you didn’t do what you should have done now? You had no idea what was possible on your next step because you allowed yourself to become so discouraged on this step and you gave up. Have you forfeited future direction with your hesitation on this step?

At almost 30 I decided to start running for the first time ever in my life. In high school I was the nearly 6 foot tall girl who became a cheerleader because basketball required running. I didn’t run. Ever. But I went and signed myself up for a full marathon not even realizing how many miles that really was, and I walked out with a 5 month training schedule. Day 1 was 3 miles. I will never forget that first 3 miles. My feet felt like bricks, my side cramped, I couldn’t control my breathing, and I was absolutely sure there was no way I could ever possibly do nearly 10 times that in a race.

And I was right, that day I couldn’t do more. But I could do what was scheduled for that day. It was ugly, real ugly, but it was done. Day 1. Crap. 5 months and over a thousand training miles to go. On any given day I could have quit. And if I would have quit, I would have never known what was really in me. There was a marathon in me. Many marathons in fact. But every single one of those just looked like a hard step in front of me I had to take.

Through training I came to understand the power of my thoughts. If I allowed my mind to wander to everything that hurt, I would soon be bent over in pain. If I allowed my thoughts to center on how much further I had to go, my feet would slow and I would start looking for the short cut. I had to control my thoughts because they would take me out faster than anything else.

Your thoughts are either taking you out or keeping you in. What are you thinking? The patient endurance God tells us about is a mental one. It allows you to be here without overwhelm of what’s to come. Patient endurance moves forward in a steady pace without rush, without panic, without worry, and without looking back. Patient endurance is a mind set on getting there, but knowing it’s not going to be right now and it’s not going to be easy, but if you don’t give up, it will happen.

God’s will is to move forward. It’s not to stop here. It is to continue on towards the life he has created you for and the purpose he has called you to. Now, you may not fully know what that purpose looks like, but you must trust it is there. When you’re in a marathon you don’t turn back on mile 20 because you’re not sure what the finisher’s medal looks like. That would be ridiculous! You keep going, you eventually get yourself there, you cross that finish line and you get your darn medal!

God has promised good plans for your life. He has promised to use every intended harm for good. He has promised to be with you, guide you and strengthen you. He has promised to enable you to do great things. He has promised to give you life so abundant it overflows. But patient endurance will be required to step into all he has for you. If you stop now you will never know what he had available to you.

Get your head right sis. Be intentional with your thoughts. YOU CAN DO THIS BECAUSE OF CHRIST WHO GIVES YOU STRENGTH. YOU ARE GUIDED BY THE ALMIGHTY WHO NEVER LEAVES YOUR SIDE. THE WAY HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE BECAUSE GOD HAS GONE BEFORE YOU.

Philippians 3: 12-14 MSG “I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.”

Who wrote this? Paul. The man who knew what it was like to be on the wrong path in life. The man who had spent years working against the message of Jesus, but had made a U-turn in his life after an encounter with God. This is a man who had decided he would do whatever it required to become exactly who God had created him to be. A man who knew with God all things are truly possible. A man who knew whatever God had for him was worth every step it required to get there and he wasn’t giving up.

What God has for you will be worth this step and every step after. You don’t want to miss this. You don’t want to delay this. Keep going. You can do whatever needs to be done today. You can’t worry about tomorrow’s steps, you don’t have that strength today. But you have today’s strength. You have today’s guidance. You have today’s time. You have a race to run sister and your patient endurance is required here.

Patient endurance. Right here, right now, this step. YOU CAN.