Insight for Living

I'M THE GUY WHO PROMOTES WAITING and allowing the Lord to open the doors and shove you through. You know, all the stuff you expect a preacher to say. I even quote verses that support doing all of the above.

Right about now, we may need a change of emphasis. I'm not suggesting we forget about waiting and trusting. What I am suggesting is that we realize the possibility of running it into the ground. We can get so good at waiting that we never act. Some people are more wait-conscious than a roomful of first-timers in an aerobics class. They put everything on hold! Like having neighbors over for a cookout. Like signing up for that mission trip. Planning ahead and spending a week away with all the family. "Naw, not now, not this year . . . but maybe someday.

Don't wait! It could result in something you regret for the rest of your days—especially when it comes to God's calling.

There was no waiting around and praying about it when Jesus called the first disciples:

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!" And they left their nets at once and followed him.

MATTHEW 4:18-20

They left their nets at once and followed Jesus. There was no hem-hawing around! They heard the call, and decisively left everything . . . and then they got after it. Makes me want to drain every ounce of enthusiasm and energy out of every single day and get after it! It also breaks me free from the hardening cement of procrastination that sets up harder every time I'm tempted to whisper to myself, "Later, Chuck . . . just put it off 'til later." Most of all, it builds a fire of enthusiasm under me as I head into the holidays and approach the starting blocks for a New Year.

Do you know what God has called you to do? Do it at once!

Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord . . . Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved. The full devotional can be purchased at tyndale.com or wherever books are sold.

Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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