We’re all capable of great things, and we’re all absolutely capable of mistakes that would ruin everything we have. We’re capable of great adaptability, great strength, great compassion—and too often, intractability, weakness and selfishness will conspire to drag us down when we’re on the cusp of something extraordinary.
That’s what it’s like to live in ourselves, in the capability that we have all alone. We’re prey to our worst selves, to influence from the enemy at our finest moments. We’re mercurial, inconsistent. As good as we can be, we can be better. More often, and on a bigger scale. We can be pioneers, not the last in line. We can be catalysts, not obstacles for ourselves and others. We can be the solution, not the problem.
So who do you want to be? It sounds like such an easy question. Who wouldn’t want to be more than they are, and more often? But finding that heart involves stepping into something else, other than ourselves. The fact is, we can’t do it alone. The only thing that approaches the level of consistency that we aspire to as people is the constancy of the heart of God.
As Christians, the fundamental charge laid before us is to succeed in becoming more like Christ. It’s in the name! We live, breathe and exist to know what that feels like. It’s our reason for doing what we do. And nothing is more consistent than Christ’s heart for us.
God trusts us. He believes in us. He believes that we are extraordinary, that we are capable of great things every day, not just on our best days. He wants to make every day our best day, for us to mirror His heart in how we approach everything we do. God sees us as pioneers. God sees us as catalysts. God sees us as the solution. He trusts us to open doors, to create opportunities, to stand when others run, and to run when others walk. He expects us to see things that others don’t, with the eyes of His Spirit. And He provides evidence of that every day, in every way in which He relates to us, in every aspect of our being. There’s no one and nothing more consistent than God. In the Kingdom, we find trust and fellowship that trumps anything found in the world. It’s where faith is born, stemming from an unshakeable trust in the Father that gave us this life, and the hope that comes from knowing his heart for us. Faith makes us unstoppable. It’s his dream for us, to know that properly for ourselves and to show the evidence for that in our lives and in our relationships with others, our goals and ambitions.
We’ve all been lost at one moment or another. We’ve all been trapped at one moment or another. We’ve all dreamed big and faltered for a second, wondering whether we had what it takes to get the job done. God says to us, YES. Yes, we have what it takes. Yes, He’s given us what we need to thrive. Yes, He believed in us all along. And YES, we’ve always been exceptional. We just need to see ourselves as He sees us, and the word ‘no’ isn’t in His vocabulary when it comes to our potential in His Spirit.
To understand this fully, we need to embrace examples of this in our own lives. Think back to moments when you haven’t been who you wanted to be – not in blame, but in acceptance and in compassion. What were the obstacles that stood in your way? Can you see the hurdle at which you stumbled? What was your heart like in that moment? How did you feel? Compare that to God’s heart for you. Is that who He knows you to be? Or do you believe that He thinks bigger and better for you, in his unchanging devotion?
Now try the same exercise from a different angle. Think back to a moment in your life when you achieved something marvelous—not in self-congratulation, but with perception and grace. How did you overcome those obstacles, leap that last hurdle? What was in your heart? That’s God’s heart for you. He’s in every moment with you, but in that moment you were in sync. In that moment, you ran alongside Him.
Know yourselves and accept where you’re fantastic, the ways in which you excel, because they’re God’s ways. Know yourselves and accept where you’re in need, because God has your back in the moments where you’re weakest. Understand the crisis points that trigger negativity, and fall back into God’s unchanging grace. Always be the person that you want to be, because that’s God’s plan for you, and has been from long before you were born. He’s strong in the broken places. Soon, you will be too.
