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
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