January 12, 2012

"I'm Sick of Excuses..."


No More Excuses Garfield....
Change Your Story.
 I must admit that I'm sick of excuses. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely guilty of making them. You know how it goes. You plan to work out but the alarm goes off & your brain is shouting, 'I can't get out of bed because then I will be too tired for the rest of the day!' The reality is that you can't afford to not get out of bed because in the long run exercising is going to help you become healthier, stronger, have more energy & feel better about yourself. Or how about, 'I was late because of  ____________ (you filll in the blank)...' The reality is that you chose not to roll out of bed, didn't iron your clothes the day before, pressed snooze or took an extra 5 minutes to check your Facebook status before you left the house...

Okay, last one. How about, 'I can't afford that....' The reality is that you are choosing to place your finances in different areas (movies, food, cable, other garbage or even good things). You 'can' pull out more credit & get in more debt or you can choose to save, invest & purchase it when you really have the money... The reality is that you really 'can' do what you think you can't.

I have come to realize that my,
"I can'ts" are really, "I'm choosing not too."

There may be certain limitations that you will face in yourself in situations, but they are often far less times than you think.

We too easily dismiss ourselves from changing areas of our lives simply because we have bought into the lie that we “can't.”

When it comes to reorganizing your schedule, working on your marriage, building that friendship, getting to work on time, spending more time with God, doing your homework on time, pursuing that job you want to or going back to school like you have always wanted it is often more fear & doubt that keeps you from seeing those changes come to pass than it is your incapability.

Now I'm not saying that you can change every ‘situation’ or ‘circumstance’ in your life. And, I'm not saying that you have everything 'in yourself' to make everything better, but 'with God all things are possible.' We often fail to lay hold of the reality of the power that He has given us through His consistent presence in & unchanging promises for our lives. Far too often when we're in situations we think about what we can or can't do to make it better. Too often God is our last resort when He should be our first (whether it is a relationship conflict or needing help with homework). So many times we are so deeply immersed in excuses of why we can't that we fail to recognize the One standing before us who can...

Too often we let our disillusionment with transformation,
our familiarity with struggle, our comfortability with hopelessness & our fellowship with helplessness
 keep us in the shackles of depression,
unbelief & stagnation.

It's time that we take “I can't” out of our vocabulary & replace it with “I choose” (hopefully more good than bad). It's time that we learn to take our “I can'ts” to God & allow him to make real in our lives the promise that, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength..." (Philippians 4:13).  There are times that your situation may not change, but you can change in the midst of your situation.  Then there are times you can change the situation, will you?

I'm sick of excuses, how about you?

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