The Power of Starting

You know opportunities come to us all. But if you don't take advantage, if you don't act right away, and if you don't start now, you may lose your opportunity. I am saying this because I believe there is a window of opportunity available for the church right now, and we need to take advantage of it. I feel that the church needs to stop procrastinating. W. Clemens Stone, author of one of the best selling motivational books says if you want to be successful, don't wait till tomorrow-do it now. I don't know what it is in your life that you have been procrastinating about. Maybe it is starting your own business or perhaps, it is cleaning out your garage, or maybe it's going back to school and getting your diploma, or maybe it's blessing somebody financially. Whatever it is, do it now. Just start now. Let me give you three reasons why you should start now. First, to borrow a line from Benjamin Franklyn; one today is worth two tomorrows. Do you know that tomorrow is not as productive as you think? But today is filled with possibilities. Today holds the greatest potential for accomplishment. Secondly, start now because it removes the greatest barrier to your success, it removes the barrier called procrastination. Anyone who brags about what they are going to do tomorrow probably did the same thing yesterday. Start where you are with what you have and God will add the increase, and start with one thing at a time. Stay focused-the greatest gap between success and failure is knowing and doing. Now I believe the most common sin in the church today is the sins of omission. We all need to pray, forgive...etc.The question is, do we pray, forgive, tithe, read the Word, go to church, love others, love our wives. You may say, I never offend anyone, but do you reach out to anyone? You may say, I never talk about anyone, but do you ever talk to anyone? You've been thinking about someone you had a misunderstanding with, and you miss that person. Don't procrastinate, call them. Do it now. Thirdly, start now because it is the open door of opportunity. Learn to go through the door of opportunity when it opens to you. you never know how long that door will stay opened, or if it will ever be open to you again. Some people are afraid of failure and some don't want to put forth the effort. They rather stay in the comfort zone, but the comfort zone can be a deadly thing. Now if you want to be successful in whatever you want to do, you must go from thinking and believing into acting. Faith without works is dead. James 4:17, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Now for those of you that are bound by fear of failure, you need to know that everyone who is successful has failed numerous times. There is nothing easy in life that's worth anything. To succeed, you will have to put forth effort, for nothing worth while is ever accomplished without effort(diligence). I urge you not to run with a borrowed dream, but go deep into His presence and discover God's dream for your own life so that you can give yourself completely to it and experience the unparallelled richness of something worth living for, yea even worth dying for. Take that first step. I call it the Power of Starting.