Take Another Step

Excerpt taken from Think Ahead: 7 Decisions You Can Make Today for the God-Honoring Life You Want Tomorrow by Craig Groeschel

 

My wife, Amy, was sitting by me at a conference when, out of the blue, she leaned over and whispered solemnly, “God wants me to start transition homes for abused women.” You may think that a pastor’s wife talks like that all the time. No. Certainly not this pastor’s wife. There are two things that stood out about her declaration. First, she’d never once said God wanted her to start something. Second, I’ve never seen her more confident of anything in her life.

God wanted her to start a transition home for abused women.

Knowing God had sparked a vision, Amy set out to do his will. After researching, studying, and seeking wisdom, Amy had a clear understanding of the general location, size, type, and price needed for the first home to start this ministry. The only problem was that she couldn’t find any that would work.

God was guiding. But he didn’t seem to be providing.

Amy searched. And searched. And searched. After months of letdowns and dead ends, she crashed hard into an emotional wall. Her confidence collapsed and she said, through tears, “Maybe I didn’t hear from God after all. Maybe I should just quit.”

You may feel now the way Amy felt then. You might be on the edge of giving up and walking away from a dream. When you’re tempted to quit, try to remember who your life is for.

For God

You are a finisher. When I commit, I do not quit. You have a race to run, and you will finish.

Remember what Paul said? “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).

At the end of his life, Paul told Timothy he did it, he finished the race.

How?

He wasn’t running for himself. He said, “I consider my life worth nothing to me.” He was proclaiming It’s not about me. It’s not about my desires. It’s not about my dreams. It’s not about my future. It’s not about my popularity.

I consider my life worth nothing to me.

If you’re tempted to quit what God’s called you to start, it may be because you care about something more than you care about God and running the race he’s set before you.

We’re all tempted to put something ahead of God and his will for our lives. What is that thing for you? You may want to acknowledge it and declare that it’s not going to stop you anymore. Make Paul’s statement your own:

However, I consider my ______ worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.

What goes in that blank for you?

• I consider my personal comfort worth nothing to me.
• I consider the opinions of other people worth nothing to me.
• I consider my social media follows worth nothing to me.
• I consider my net worth worth nothing to me.
• I consider my personal dreams worth nothing to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.

We commit to him, and we don’t quit. We are finishers. We run our race for God.

When we grow weary, we remember who we’re running for and we take the next step. You don’t have to finish the race today. You just need to take one more step.

Angela Duckworth, a scientist who has spent years studying why successful people succeed, found that gritty people who overcome will get up, point themselves in the direction of their goal, and take one more step.

You just need to get up and fight one more round. On September 7, 1892, a boxer named “Gentleman Jim” Corbett entered the ring to fight arguably the greatest boxer of all time, John L. Sullivan. Sullivan was the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing and the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing. When he got in the ring that day, he was 50–0.

Sullivan lost only one fight in his entire career. That one.

Gentleman Jim Corbett had a mantra he lived by in the ring: “Fight one more round.”

He didn’t think of himself as the most talented or best. But he would never quit.

He got knocked around by John Sullivan that day. But he wouldn’t stay down. Fight one more round.

Back then the fight kept going until someone couldn’t fight anymore. There could be a lot of rounds. This match went twenty-one rounds. That’s when Gentleman Jim finally knocked out John Sullivan and became the heavyweight champion of the world.

You may get knocked down. We all get knocked down. But you get up, and you fight one more round. You take one more step.

What about Amy and her vision to start transition homes for abused women? That’s what she did as well. When everything in her felt it was time to quit, she took another step.

After countless potential homes didn’t make the cut, she made another call. That’s when she heard about the “perfect house.” When I say perfect, except for the price (which was way out of our range), it was as perfect as any house could be, almost as if it had been designed as a ministry home.

When we stepped into the newly remodeled home, we met the seller. With unbridled passion, Janet explained that she bought the house to flip it. But midway through her construction, she believed God called her to also furnish the home. (What? That makes no sense.) Prompted by God, she installed a commercial-grade kitchen, transformed extra rooms into bedrooms, and furnished it with twin beds and bunk beds in several rooms. This four-bedroom house could comfortably sleep eight women, with space for group dining and large group gatherings. It also had private quarters for a house director. That’s when the bizarre story got even crazier.

Janet cried as she described the process. “I had planned to flip the house for a sizable profit. But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that this home was supposed to be used to help hurting women.”

By this point we were all crying.

Then lightning struck. She told us, “I think I’m supposed to donate the house, furniture, and all, to be your first transitional home.”

God had indeed guided. And God, in his perfect timing, had provided. Why? Because Amy didn’t quit.

Now Branch15 has multiple homes in cities across Oklahoma helping women escape human trafficking, drug addiction, and physical abuse, and transition out of incarceration back into healthy living.

Just take another step.

…

Taken from Think Ahead: 7 Decisions You Can Make Today for the God-Honoring Life You Want Tomorrow by Craig Groeschel. Copyright © February 2024 by Zondervan. Used by permission of Zondervan, www.zondervan.com.

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