Stepping Stones of Potential

Commit your way unto the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. 

Psalm 37:4

Last week we used this verse to discuss the importance of recognizing the potential  God has given each of us. Here is my testimony about the Stepping Stones of Potential God has set before me throughout my life. 

POTENTIAL-A God-given gift and desire placed in your heart by God Himself that enables you to fulfill His purpose for your life~Debbie’s definition.

I have always been interested in education. My mom says she knew when I was 3 that I would be a teacher. My junior year of high school I dedicated my life to Christian Education. I attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield to prepare myself for that goal. I spent nearly 25 years teaching in various Christian Schools and working heavily in Children’s ministry in our church. For the past 4-5 years I have headed up the Children’s ministry at our current church. I have assisted my husband in leading youth groups. I have planned, organized, or have had lead positions in numerous VBS programs.

So, why is it that when my current role landed ‘plop’ in my lap, that I feared and doubted my ability to take it on? God has provided me the experience. He has directed my paths. He has led the way. For me throw up my hands and say, “no way” would lead to those dreaded words from last week:  “She had so much potential.”

Here is the story:

My latest school needed to make cut-backs, and I was ‘economically eliminated’ in 2010.  Even through that, I now know God was preparing my heart and increasing my potential for His next ‘job’ for me.  Little did I know at the time that it would stre-e-etch me to reach that God-given potential.

I broke through my comfort zone and became involved in a Party Sales company which increased my confidence with the adult world.

Last fall, just days before school started, I was approached to co-direct a preschool/childcare facility through the reorganization process.  I felt very comfortable about MY responsibilities, knowing that my co-director could take care of my ‘weak’ areas.  Well, guess what! In the spring the co-director resigned due to her pregnancy. The administrator says, “Debbie, why don’t you just take the Director position”.

I started to say,”UH, I Uh….” You know, the stammering around….

But then it all started to make sense. I knew God wouldn’t place me in a position I couldn’t handle. I began to recognize—He had been adding potential all throughout my life, and I was at another stepping stone.

So, deep breath~~~lots of prayer~~~~continuing to build confidence~~~God and I can do this!

Years and years ago God gave me a desire—and the potential to fulfill that desire~Now it is my responsibility to reach that potential.

The same is true in your life. Like we discussed last week, if you are truly seeking God’s direction, your desires are His desires-follow the stepping stones~~REACH YOUR POTENTIAL.

Keep Stepping~~

Debbie

The Desires of our Heart: Reaching our Potential

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a quote from Dr. Henry Cloud’s book, 9 Things a Leader MUST DO, on my social media page. I stated that the concept reminded me of one of my favorite verses, and that I would be getting to it soon.

The quote: “One of the worst things you can die with is potential.”

The verse: Psalm 37:4~Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."

That quote, in the very first chapter, really jumped out at me. Can you imagine someone at your funeral saying, “She had so much potential!” How sad. 

What a waste of God-given talent. When you are done here, take a moment to read the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-28.

God sure doesn’t want that said at our funeral! He directs our steps throughout our lives to lead us to His plan for our life~to that particular ministry at that particular time. He has prepared us for the task at hand!

When you consider Psalm 37:4, you can go so far as to say He gave us the desire to reach that point in the first place! Have you ever stopped to consider how often we want to do a particular ministry or career, then find ourselves to ‘too scared’ to pursue it!

You see, this verse isn’t just saying God gives you whatever you want. I believe if we are truly seeking His will and plan for our lives, that our actual desires come from Him. And, when you think about it~when we want what God wants, we are getting what we want! Maybe I should go through that again: 

When WE want what GOD wants, we WILL get what WE want!

The first part of the verse states that we should delight ourselves in the Lord. That is the command.  In Treasury of David, Spurgeon states, “Make Jehovah the joy and rejoicing of your spirit”.  We must make God the center of our joy, our satisfaction, our contentment, our happiness, our  peace...

When we do that, our faithful, trusting spirit is rewarded with pleasure~~Godly pleasure! You may think, “God doesn’t promise to give us everything we want!” However, according to this passage, He does~~IF what we always desire pleases Him. Obviously in our human bodies and minds, we don’t always desire to please Him. Often our desires have selfish motives.

Spurgeon goes on to say in his commentary on Psalms, “Saints who delight in God desire or ask only for what will please God. Giving them a free hand is safe, because their will is subdued to God’s will, and now they may have their innermost desires and not just their casual wishes.”

If our desire is to allow our desires to come from God, we will receive them.

Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with our potential, as mentioned above.

I look at it this way~If we are allowing God to direct our lives, and we choose to do seek His plan (our God-given potential) for our lives, and we allow that potential to become our goal (desire),~then He will give us the ability to make sure it comes to pass.

Next time, we will look at how I am allowing this to encourage me as I am embarking on a new road of leadership-that basically has me ‘scared to death’. God has allowed this verse and the concept of potential to ease my fears and build my confidence. 

So we will see exactly how the quote and the verse go hand in hand.

Delight in the Lord~

Debbie