After God created Adam, He gave him a job. God knew Adam’s potential to name all the animals would never be released unless it was challenged. Potential must be exercised to be fulfilled. Demands must be made on potential if it is to be released and fulfilled. God has given you potential. Unless you make demands on it, you will die with it. Unless you venture to try things you’ve never done before, you’ll never experience the wealth that lives within you. Decide today, “I’m going to do something I’ve never done before.” “I’m going to get a promotion this year in my job.” “I’m going to win more people to Jesus this year than my church and my pastor ever did.” If you have a business, resolve to cut the overhead and increase service. Give your potential some demands. It needs to be maximized and challenged.
The greatest works in the world will be done by people who don’t care who gets credit. I don’t want to be famous, I just want to be faithful. I don’t want to be well-known, I want to be well-used. I don’t want to be powerful, I want to be potent. Success requires striking out on new paths instead of traveling those that are well-worn. Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. There are many people with great ideas, but they have no desire to try. There are four steps to the accomplishment of your dream: Prepare prayerfully. Plan purposefully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently. Failure is the path of least persistence.
Don’t be Afraid to Try:
No one can climb beyond the limitations he has placed on himself. Success is never final—failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts—courage and the willingness to move on. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to the grave, obscure men, whom fear and timidity have prevented from making their first attempt to do something. Never tell a person that something can’t be done, because God may have been waiting for centuries for someone ignorant enough to believe that the impossible could be possible.
The poorest of men are men without a dream. Don’t be so afraid of failure that you refuse to try. Demand something of yourself. Failure is only an incident. There’s more than the failure—there’s success deep behind that failure. Failure is the opportunity to more intelligently begin again. When you fail, that is a great chance to start again. Learn from it and move on. Don’t be paralyzed by the failure.
One good thing about failure is that it is proof that you tried. The greatest mistake you can make is to be afraid of making one. People who do nothing in life are usually people who do nothing. People who don’t make mistakes in life are usually people who didn’t have a chance to make any because they never tried. Challenge your potential. Demand things of yourself that are beyond what you have already done. Expect more from yourself than the accomplishments that are easily within your reach. What you have is not all you are. The limit of your potential is God. It is better to attempt a thing and fail, than to never try and not know you could succeed.
Excerpt from the book “Understanding Your Potential” by Dr. Myles Munroe. Article Courtesy of StreamingFaith.com
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Dr. Myles Munroe is an internationally renowned bestselling author, lecturer, teacher, life coach, government consultant, and leadership mentor. He is senior pastor of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship, where his wife, Ruth Ann, serves as co-senior pastor. http://www.bfmmm.com.
