Daily Hope with Rick Warren - Tuesday, 31
December 2013 – “Seize the Moment!”
“Be careful how you act; these are
difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you
have for doing good.”(Ephesians 5:15-16 (LB))
Everyone has a dream. Maybe you’ve had it
since you were a child. Maybe it came to you more recently. Desires, wishes,
and ambitions should be a part of all of our lives. You may have hidden it deep
inside of you, but you have a dream.
The question isn’t whether you have a
dream. It’s “What are you doing with your dream?”
Most dreams never come true. It’s not
that we’re not smart enough, not outgoing enough, or not spiritual enough.
Usually, our dreams don’t come true because we’re unwilling to take the
necessary risks to reach them.
The Bible shares a sad one-sentence commentary
about a king who failed to achieve an important ambition in his life: “[King]
Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they
never set sail — they were wrecked at Ezion Geber” (1 Kings 22:48 NIV).
While it’s a tragedy for your ship to
never come in in life, it’s a greater tragedy for you to build a ship and never
set sail. Imagine the energy and expense expended by King Jehoshaphat. He built
an entire fleet of ships to go after the gold, and not one of them set sail. They
never got out of the harbor. Evidently a storm came up and, while these ships
were in the harbor, they slammed against the rocks and were destroyed.
Some people spend their whole lives
waiting for their ship to come. But God isn’t waiting for your ship to come in.
He’s waiting for you to sail your ship out of the harbor.
I know a man who for 30 years had a dream
of starting a ministry. He talked about it, dreamed about it, and planned it.
He spent a great deal of time on this dream, but he never took the risk to do
anything more about his dream. He never got his ship out of the harbor.
Eventually, the man died — and so did his dream.
The Bible’s antidote to that kind of
tragic procrastination is as simple as an overdone catchphrase but
excruciatingly difficult to apply at times: Just do it. The Bible says, “Be
careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make
the most of every opportunity you have for doing good” (Ephesians 5:15-16 LB).
The Bible urges us to seize the moment
and act now. To live a life with unfulfilled dreams is a tragedy. Ships aren’t
made for the harbor. They’re made to set sail.
So are you ready to set sail?
Talk It Over:
·
For what dream have you planned but never
taken action?
·
What resources have you been waiting on
in order to make your dreams reality? What resources are already available to
you through God’s provision?
·
What are the opportunities that you need
to make the most of today?
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Saddleback Community Church
1 Saddleback Pkwy
Lake Forest, CA 92630 United States
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