I’m so excited to be turning the reigns over to Andre’ and Timberley Gray, from Living Our Priorities, today. Something we talk about a lot on FOI is getting out of your comfort zone to pursue your dreams. And my friends are here to show us how God feels about this very subject.
Welcome Andre’ and Timberley…….
What hinders us from pursuing our dreams? Is it perfection, believing in ourselves, or is it that we are afraid to fail? Honestly, it could be any of those things. However, one of the biggest hindrances when you pursue your dreams is… perfection.
Think about that for a moment. Many of us wait until the time is RIGHT. We wait until we have enough money, until our children are all grown up, until the New Year… etc., etc., etc.
We don’t know about you, but when we get stuck with life, we look to see what God’s Word says. Surprisingly, God has something to say about waiting for the right time in Ecclesiastes 11.
“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”~ Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NLT)
In other words, don’t wait for everything in your life to be perfect to start pursuing your dreams. Start now; right where you are!
Although we have to warn you, it won’t be easy to UN-LEARN the mindset that you need perfection to pursue your dreams. From experience, we learned a long time ago that perfection only leads to procrastination. So today, we want to encourage you to pursue your dreams in excellence.
Why Excellence
You don’t have to be a perfectionist or have OCD to do things with excellence. If you’re a believer in Christ, pursuing anything in life in excellence is what we do. It’s who we are. Allow us to explain this briefly, by examining a few scriptures.
In Genesis 1:26 the New Living Translation says; “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
What we gather here is that; as human beings, we are created in God’s image.
Psalm 8:1 in the King James Version it says; “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”
In other words, the Lord is excellent!
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Be sure to checkout out And lastly, 2 Corinthians 3:18 (AMPC) tells us; “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever-increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”
Ok, let’s look at a few keywords here and bring this all together. Where it says; in the Word of God, that would be the Bible.
Meaning, the Bible is our mirror (spiritual mirror). In which, we will see God and be transformed in HIS IMAGE.
When you first wake up in the morning and look in your bathroom mirror, you may not like what you see. Then, you take a shower. You get dressed, comb your hair and look again in the mirror, and now you’re pleased!
Well, this goes the same for our spiritual walk. We may not operate in excellence right now, but because that is who God is and God made us in His image, we must turn to the word of God (the Bible) so that we can get dressed in His image.
So every morning, we should put on excellence; because that’s who God is. That’s who we are!
How To Pursue Excellence
Once we understand that our God is excellent, and we are created in His image, then everything we do should reflect excellence. We can do this when we understand two basic principles:
Do Everything Decently And In Order
We serve a God of order and peace. And since we are made in His image, we should strive to do things in excellence, and orderly.
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” ~ 1 Corinthians 14:40 (KJV)
Have you ever felt overwhelmed sitting at a messy desk? For real, the piles of work spread out over the desk can bring anxiety just by looking at.
But when the workload is laid out orderly, conquering each task not only becomes obtainable, but peaceful.
God is not messy or the author of confusion and neither should we. So when you pursue your dreams, purpose to set order in your thoughts and actions.
You can do this by writing down your dreams and maintaining a schedule to help you achieve your goals.
Prioritize what you spend your time on, by choosing to refrain from confusion, clutter, and chaos. Everything you do and say should reflect who you are in Christ. And when we do this we will naturally….
Work Unto God Not Man
When we wrap our mind around that everything we do is unto God and not man or even ourselves, we will strive for excellence because we want to honor God.
“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” ~ Colossians 3:23-24 (NLT)
Romans 12 tells us that our lives are a living sacrifice to God so that means everything we do, say, or even achieve should honor God. The goals and dreams God placed inside of you are for His glory. Therefore, our pursuit to please Him is done with excellence.
This means we give everything our best, without murmuring and complaining. We don’t make excuses for what isn’t being done or do things half heartily. As we take responsibility for our actions and give everything we do 100% effort.
Last but not least, we don’t wait for all the conditions to line up for us to pursue God’s best in our life. No! We pursue His best right where we are, knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Because greater is He who lives inside of us, than he that is in this world!
Closing Remarks
If you’re walking around with a dream in your heart, that you haven’t pursued because you were waiting for all the circumstances to be “perfect”; we encourage you to lay down the heavy burden of perfection. Don’t delay pursuing God’s best in your life any longer. Start today, with pursuing your dreams in excellence. After all, that’s how we were created!
~ André and Timberley Gray
About Andre’ and Timberley
André and Timberley do life together as a husband and wife team who, raise a family, serve as bi-vocational Pastors, and help others find the balance in life through their blog Living Our Priorities. Like many people, they found themselves frustrated trying to find balance with their; faith, family and work. That’s when they discovered the priorities of God. And once they purposed to live by them, it not only changed their marriage, it changed their life! Now they find great joy, inspiring others to live within the priorities of God.
They’d love to hear from you, so be sure to head over to their blog and say hi!
Bible Translations Copyrights:
King James Version (KJV) Public Domain
New Living Translation (NLT) Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Amplified Classic Edition (AMPC) “Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.
