Do you have Goals and Aspirations as yet unfulfilled? Have your dreams grown dim…and do the desires of your heart seem further away than ever? Lets get the defibrillator out. Maybe we can give them a  jump start. Let’s get them dreams off the back burner and get the full flame of Faith back under them again.

This morning I woke up thinking about a lady from a church I used to attend.

For 17 years Joyce and I worked closely together before God moved our family to pastures new. We have been at the church where my wife and I are Pastors now for over 14 years. I feel it is important to say, if we are to be successful we must stick with things for longer than many people tend to do. It seems easy to throw things away and start again but it will always leave a scar if the time or the reason to move on was not right. That’s why I said God moved our family and I know that although we had some really tough times at first we were able to stand firm because we knew we were doing what our God wanted us to do.

Anyway, back to Joyce. That lady lived a triumphant life of Faith until she passed on February 19th 2018.  I was privileged to say a few words at her leaving do. (read funeral if you like) and although the coffin was right in front of me as I spoke I knew it was just a box, with an empty shell of a body inside it.  Joyce was not there, she was with her husband Ted, and the saviour she had loved every day of her life. She had been a great success: like all of us, she had her ups and downs, but the testimonies from all over that very full church building told me that during her 88 year sojourn on planet earth the impression she made will last for a very long time.

She did what she was called to do, she was like a ‘mother’ to multitudes.

It may seem like a tentative link but my mind made the leap, and success in any field is still success, so I think there is something else I need to share from my first thoughts this morning?

I have had the DESIRE to build a successful Consumer Direct Marketing Business for many years now. I have done OK part time for the last 14 years but with everything else going on in my life (I admit that’s an excuse) I have never taken it to the next level.  My goal is to achieve sufficient monthly residual income to provide for my family, free up more time for my pastoral ministry and also to help with funding various other ministries that are important to my wife and me.

OK, I have done reasonably well, but not so well that it will make a difference when I am lying in my own wooden box. I have done many things well but why I have not broken through in this one thing continues to baffle me. I could fake it now and tell you how fantastic I am doing and how swimmingly it’s going but that is not why I am here. I have to be honest with you if you are taking your valuable time to read my writing. I appreciate you and I want us to grow together. I do some things very well but in other areas I need to learn and grow. I suppose we all do and I know I always will.

So I asked myself this question, is it my DESIRE or my FAITH that needs to be increased? Do I not want it badly enough or are there little foxes of doubt that are spoiling the vine and holding me back? (ref. Song of Solomon 2:15)

Well I certainly have FAITH in GOD: above all things I know that my God will supply all of my needs according to his riches in Heaven. I believed Jesus when He said He would never leave me or forsake me. So there is no problem there.

I have Faith in the Physical Laws of the universe. I know that that sun will rise tomorrow morning and that if I let go of the object in my hand gravity will always take it the same way. I know that I will reap what I sow, every time. I have never doubted those principles.

I have faith in my wife. I never doubt her love and her desire for the best in my life and the lives of our children.

I trust the integrity of the company with which I have partnered, and I know they do their best to produce the highest quality goods they can at affordable prices: and they always pay me what I deserve and always on time. They have their faults like every company but they do try to fix them quickly when they come to light. I have no doubts there.

I have faith in the marketing system which many companies use to distribute their goods efficiently. I believe it is the best way to get goods or services to the end consumer saving time and cutting the costs of middle men. It is also one of very few ways that an ordinary family like mine can start a small business of their own with very little outlay and whose earnings are only limited by their willingness to work.

I have the same NO LIMIT opportunity as everyone else, I produce better results than many and yet I have to admit I am not fulfilling my potential in this area.

So why not? Where is the disconnect in my Faith?

Thinking about Joyce and all she achieved, and about all that there is still for me to do, I had a revelation.
The problem is that I still lack Faith in me.

And my thoughts went to many of the people I know and I thought ‘the problem is the same for them too’…we can all believe for great things for other people, but we struggle to believe for ourselves. As an example just a few days ago we were asked to pray for a 4 year old boy in hospital with meningitis. His parents had been told by the doctors to prepare for the worst and it was suggested we pray for them to be comforted. I would not ask God to do that.  I had not one ounce of doubt in my mind that the child would be healed. I was not a bit surprised when the good news of his recovery came through a few days later. I have seen it before with the same evil bug and I know nothing is beyond my God’s power to heal… or His desire to heal.

This morning I was saying ‘God, thank you for the miracle’…it was then that I got the revelation

How I talk to God about others, how I pray for others is different from how I talk to Him about myself. Somehow I feel they deserve the miracle but perhaps I don’t.  It was immediately clear that my daily self-talk must change (and yes, I am also talking to you, dear reader) and so must my daily activities.

I have Faith in God, and He has faith in me… but I must agree with Him and have faith in me too. So I am not changing the massive goals I have set for myself, but I am taking a step back to focus on the next simple step that will get me back on the road to that goal.

My Faith has increased even as I have been writing this simple declaration:

So NOW I commit to doing the small, simple action steps that will ultimately get me to my desired result. What is the one thing that will make a difference, can I put everything else aside until that one thing is accomplished before I move on to the next ‘One Thing’?  I know what my ‘One Thing’ is and I am starting right now, even as this message is uploading.

Will you ask yourself this question, if you have the DESIRE, and you have the FAITH, and yet it is still not happening… “What is the one thing that I must do right now and for as long as it takes, to get back on the right track.”

Now don’t take it that I mean you can’t eat or sleep or speak to your partner or your kids till its done. But if you decide a television program or some other unprofitable activity is more important, if you would rather do something that will take you further away from your goal when you should be moving towards it: then who do you think you are fooling? I know what it’s like, we have all done it. But lets stop it. Let’s commit to fixing it.…Right NOW.

Lets finish with the master teacher, Jesus, who tells a parable in Matthew 13:31…

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his
field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is that largest
of garden plants and becomes a tree…”

Do you have faith right now that is the size of a tree? Probably not!
Neither do I, but I bet we both have faith the size of a mustard seed.
Make the commitment to yourself, to your family, to those you care about.
Believe you are worth it, believe you can and just make the start.