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 dismissed the prompting. 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 “May our God make you worthy of his calling. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.”
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. When life presents an opportunity, jump in. When faith prompts you to do something, go for it! Get out of your head, and get into this one, precious life you have been given.
Yesterday, I sat on an airplane flying from Dallas to Miami for 3 hours with 180 complete strangers. One such stranger was a man in a red white and blue Texas hoodie who somewhat randomly chose the seat next to mine. I came to learn this wasn’t just some random man flying into Miami for a beach day. His name was Peter, and he was on a mission to save the life of a young woman named Rosie who found herself in a pit of despair and planned to commit suicide. Peter had learned of her desperate situation by text the night before, so here he was on a plane flying to Miami, prompted by his faith to do something. He didn’t know how he was going to find her, he was just praying he wasn’t too late.
This man wasn’t a preacher. He wasn’t a missionary. He was just an ordinary 70 year old man who had retired from his job and decided to use the money God had given him to help everyone he could. Within the past few weeks, he had also bought the freedom of a complete stranger who had been trafficked while trying to escape Cuba. The ransom was $15,000. Peter told me he just couldn’t sleep when he knew he had $15,000 sitting in an account and there was a man who’s entire world could be changed with that money. So, he paid his ransom and bought his freedom.
Who does that? Who jumps on planes to try and find one person who is hopeless? Who pays the ransom for a complete stranger? Who lives like that? Someone who is done living their life little and safe! Someone diving into the life Jesus died to give them, and that life doesn’t play little. Someone who responds to a prompting of faith with action. Someone who doesn’t want to come to their end and regret not going.
Reading today’s scripture again, I realize this is what it looks like in action. God making you worthy of his calling. God giving you power to accomplish the good things your faith prompts you to do.
I asked Peter how I could help him find and save Rosie. He said he didn’t know, but took my number. I promised to pray over them by name until I hear the mission is complete. When I drove off, he was standing on the curb in the Miami airport, awaiting his next move, prompted by faith. Finding this woman named Rosie who had lost her desire to continue living will require the power of God. But, God’s power has a way of showing up in miraculous ways when we are prompted in faith to do something.
What would you regret not doing? Have you been prompted to do something, but you’ve been playing little with that prompting and dismissing yourself from action? You will regret that. Go. Show up. Try, darn it. Do what you can. Here’s what I know … when you do what you can, God does what only he can, and miraculous things happen. His prompting is an invitation to be part of the miraculous.
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 Monday you may have dreaded when the alarm rang. A day of work, a day of school, a day that seems a whole lot like the hundreds of others you’ve already 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 “May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.” 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 and the excuses. 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’re prompted to do. Free to live BIG and bold without apology or regret. Free to show up and not know how in the world it’s going to work, but do it any way.
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. Follow the prompting. If you don’t, you’ll regret it.
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