Wisdom

“For the Lord gives wisdom.” Pr 2:6 NKJV

To succeed in life you must do these three things:

(1) Decide what’s important. The story’s told of a family who moved to the country to get away from the city. They decided to raise cattle so they bought a ranch. One day a friend visited them and asked what they’d named it. Dad said, “I wanted to call it The Flying-W, but Mom wanted to call it The Suzy-Q. One of our sons liked The Bar-J, but our daughter preferred The Lazy-Y. So we compromised and called it The Flying-W, Suzy-Q, Bar-J, Lazy-Y Ranch.” The friend asked, “How are your cattle doing?” Dad replied, “We don’t have any. They didn’t survive the branding.” Come on—decide what’s important to you!

(2) Prioritize your time. Too many of us are like the store owner who got so busy trying to keep the place clean that he forgot to open the front door. The reason you’re in business is to serve customers and make a profit, not get distracted by secondary things. Base your life’s decisions on your priorities. And if you need help figuring out what they are, ask God: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

(3) Learn to motivate yourself. Most times, nobody else will. When tragedy struck his life, we read: “David encouraged himself in the Lord” (1Sa 30:6). You need to learn how to do that too. Jude writes: “Building up yourselves…praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude v. 20). To succeed in life you must learn to encourage yourself, pray and build yourself up.

LAUNCH OUT

“Launch out into the deep.” Lk 5:4

Dr. Robert Schuller’s hobbies include raising koi fish. Asked why some grow big while others stay small, he replied, “If a koi fish lives in a small tank it will never grow longer than two or three inches. In a larger pond they can grow up to ten inches long—in ponds the size of mine they’ll get to be eighteen inches long—but if they live in a huge lake where they can swim and stretch, they can grow up to three feet long. The size of the pond determines the size of the fish. Similarly, little ideas in little-thinking minds produce little achievements. But little ideas embraced by big-thinking minds produce enormous achievements.”

Jesus said, “According to your faith be it unto you” (Mt 9:29). The size of your faith and your vision determines the outcome of your idea. Edison had to install electric lights for free in an office building before anyone even came to look at them. The first sewing machine invented was destroyed by a mob in France. Morse waited for ten years before the world showed any interest in his telegraph. And when the idea of traveling by railroad was introduced, people scoffed because it was widely believed that traveling at thirty miles per hour stopped blood circulation in the human body.

Ronald E. Osborn said, “Undertake something difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try something beyond what you have already mastered, you’ll never grow.” You attain in direct proportion to what you attempt, which is why Jesus said to His disciples: “Launch out into the deep.”