Take The Initiative

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Be sure to do what you should
Galatians 6:4

You can only pray, plan and prepare for so long, then you must step out in faith and act. The Chinese say, 'He who deliberates too long before taking a step, will spend his whole life on one leg.' The reason we never get started is because we focus on tomorrow instead of today. The only time over which you have any control is the present. James writes: 'Look here, you people who say, "Tomorrow we are going to a certain town...We will do business there and make profit." How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog - it's here a little while, then it's gone' (James 4:13,14 NLT).

Edgar Guest wrote: 'The greatest of workers this man would have been - tomorrow. The world would have known him, had he ever seen - tomorrow. But the fact is he died and he faded from view, and all that he left here when living was through, was a mountain of things he intended to do - tomorrow.' The idea of tomorrow can be very seductive, but the promise it holds is often false. It's starting, that stops us! Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, observed, 'The greatest time wasted, is the time getting started.' The hardest part of writing a letter is penning the first line. The hardest part of making a tough phone call is picking up the receiver and dialling the number. So how do you overcome this difficulty? Schedule a specific time for doing what you don't like to do or fear to do, and each time you follow through and do it, it will get easier and you'll get better at it.

Copied from UCB Word for Today. Free issues are available here for the UK and Republic of Ireland.