Taking Risks

"The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" -1 Thessalonians 5:24 (NIV)
How true it is, as someone (with tongue-in-cheek) said, "Blessed be he who aimeth at nothing for he shall surely hit it!" Or as another said, "Better to aim at the clouds and hit the tree tops than to aim at the tree tops and hit the ground."


To have meaningful goals in life is to risk failure. Not to have any goals may keep one feeling safe and comfortable, but it is to guarantee failure. "Equally comfortable," writes Peter Wagner, "is to define your goals in terms of what you happen to be doing at any given time. If you shoot first, then draw the target around the bullet hole, you'll never miss the bull's eye. If someone looks later, he might even call you a good marksman." Then you can brag about your accomplishments!


But this is not success. It is allowing life to shape you rather than you shaping your life and deciding how you want to invest it.


True success is to discover what God's purpose for your life is and then give life everything you've got to achieve that purpose.


Whatever that is, it's not failure that is a crime, but to have such a low aim that there is no chance of failure. Or, as somebody else put it, "Not to have a goal is more to be feared than not reaching it." If you tried and did your best, even if you failed to achieve your goal, you are already a success. All God requires is that we do
our best.


Remember, however, if your goals are in harmony with God's purpose for you, he has already equipped you with the wherewithal to be able to achieve them. It's up to us to get well trained and learn how to effectively use these abilities. So, don't waste your life. Invest it in a worthwhile God-given life purpose—a noble cause into which you can put your best efforts and be excited about it.